< Lady In The Red Dress | Ex Pulplogs | The Serpent Dies >
ST With Corve having gathered as much as he can force from their female prisoner, the Circle must now make their plans and then carry them out. And doing so quickly would be a wise choice, since after the battle with the five cultists it's impossible that the entire city doesn't know where they are.
ST The woman had said her father's Circle was going to find two more members, Scarlet Poppy and some High Priest so that they could defeat everyone. That could be dangerous. She'd also said that her best guess as to where those two are would be the great temple at the center of the city, in its lowest levels.
ST Inside the Great Labyrinth
Xar`Rex "Down to the Labyrinth?"
Myrrh "Well atleast i'll be able to get some more...direct samples."
Corve says, "Nothing left to do but go down." He grabs Carmine's hand after reloading all his weapons and squeezes it with a small smile.
Carmine squeezes it, still wearing the blood-dress. "A long walk down, I imagine."
Corve smirks at his lover. "Nothing we haven't done before. Let's go."
ST The storm still rages in the City Under the Sands, leaving everyone pretty much blind to anything more then arm's reach away. It is, therefor, somewhat of a surprise when Oteki appears from the dust a few feet ahead, glowing a bit.
Corve says, "Bout bloody time. Where the hell've you been?"
d- -b sneezes at the dust a little, before looking around and then orienting himself on the Circle. "Oh, there you are!" he exclaims. "I were off doin' me own thing, but a little bird told me ye'd likely be needin' me help. So 'ere I am."
Corve snorts and nods. "Fine. Glad you could join us. Is everyone ready? Think it's time we put an end to this."
Captain Oteki scratches the back of his head a little, and then nods, placing a mummy-wrapped hand on the pommel of his currently sheathed sword. "Ready as I'll ever be, lads."
Myrrh "Ready as i'll ever be. I Just wish I could shake the creeps."
ST Aside from Oteki's strange appearance, nothing weird happens as the Circle makes their way to the center of the ancient city. The route described, after some reluctance, by the captured woman, takes them through the least populated parts of the city. Occasionally they notice a hooded and cloaked figure moving in the distance or a light in one of the buildings
ST But none comes to face them and they are left alone.
Carmine "...She's here." carmine whispers.
Corve raises a brow. "Who? Ruby?" He raises his eyes and looks around.
Corve catches sight of what Carmine saw, and raises a brow. "That's the woman that was modeling with Ugly Tree." He reaches for a sixshooter. Maybe he can pick her off from down here.
Myrrh "Maybe murder is a bit much in this case Corve...she's just a mortal
Carmine "Her, yes," she nods to the latter.
Corve eyes Myrrh. "Oh, I don't know. She's part of the cult that brought the isle down. I think I'm justified."
d- -b pauses. "Wait! Wait, wait, wait." he gestures wildly, before pausing. "You mean to tell me that you lads know someone named "Ugly Tree"?"
Corve "...Yes."
Xar`Rex "He was quite handsome, in the maner of humans."
Myrrh "Well you know the gunshot might give away our position for a start..."
Myrrh "I don't know. He certainly had the build but his head was full of rocks.
Carmine "Lets kill her or move on." says carmine, quite matter of factly
Captain Oteki "Moving on."
Corve checks his bullet stash. "We'll come back for her." He glares at the woman, quite meaningfully, and then continues walking.
Xar`Rex eyes her suspiciously and moves on
Myrrh sighs at the very different group of people he's been traveling with and follows Xar.
ST The Circle reaches their destination. From out of the dust-storm a vast building looms, likely near on a mile high. How it is hidden by the desert...how it could have been built under the vast weight of sands...it seems impossible. It looks almost alive, a vast coiling serpent made of dark stone. The windows of the pinnacle glint like eyes.
Xar`Rex "The Serpent." he murmurs.
ST It is undeniably a creation of grace and power, yet beholding it turns the stomach. The stones shine wetly, as if covered in slime and the strange shifting symmetries of the building are nauseating to behold. Even the bowels of Shajumani had more to recommend them then this place.
Captain Oteki peers at the building. "..is anyone else gettin' the impression that that there particular edifice be lookin' to eat us?"
Carmine "It can try!"
ST Corve looks upon the vast temple and, for a small second, finds himself once again wearing the massive body of Sixth Hour Fading. He looks down upon the building from the apex of an impossibly high jump and hurls a cloud of knives, each one exploding on impact and sending shattering waves of force through the dark temple.
ST On the ground, a tiny woman dressed all in blue picks up a half-destroyed house and hurls it into the foundations of the dark temple. A man wearing a hundred pounds too much of himself swings his axe and cuts down an army of cultists trying to defend their temple. Under their assault, the Temple's defenders wither
ST And the Temple itself is shattered, reduced to rubble and dust.
ST Corve returns to himself a moment later, feeling a bit fuzzy.
Corve shudders, quite visibly. "I hate it when that happens." Beat. "I was here. Sixth was here. They didn't finish the job. Let's do that."
ST Carmine too remembers being here, once before. She remembers going inside, feeling awe and wonder at the grandeur of this monument to the power she was to serve.
ST She thinks she might remember more...but if flees into the darkness of her mind before she can peer too closely.
Myrrh whistles at the large temple. "Wow, that's...a bit bigger than I was anticipating."
Carmine "I've been here before." She whispered.
Carmine "It's where I first swore myself to the darkness, I think." and now I come here, and I am dark
Xar`Rex "Now it will be where you find the light again."
Corve "Think it's about time we let someone out." Corve closes his eyes, and releases Carmine's hand, placing his palms together. After a few moments, his Caste Mark glows fiercely, and before the group, a tall, well-muscled man that evberyone but Oteki would recognize as the man from the status back at the hidden mausoleum. It is Sixth Hour Fading, Corve's previous incarnation.
Myrrh "...that's strange."
Xar`Rex cocks his head to one side.
Carmine "...is that the man you talk to all the time?"
Sixth Hour Fading looks around, somewhat confused. Well over seven feet tall, with thews more mighty then a plow ox or four, Sixth is one of the most handsome bald-headed sun-made men to ever walk Creation. He also shares Carmine's sense in fashion, that being minimal. His is made of leather, silk and gold. Not blood.
Sixth Hour Fading "You learned a new trick, didn't you?"
Corve nods to Carmine, and then grins at Sixth. "Yup. Thought you might wanna be present when we finish what you started."
Sixth Hour Fading "Well, it certainly is nice to have a shape of my own rather then just live in your head. You've really no idea how boring it is in there."
Corve "You'd be surprised. Let's move." He rolls his eyes and starts walking, taking Carmine's hand again.
Carmine walks happily by his side.
Captain Oteki raises an eyebrow at Sixth. "They certainly used to make you Solars big, didn't they? The wonders of miniaturization." he comments idly, before turning to follow Corve and Carmine.
Sixth Hour Fading "You know, I don't think I can do much as a creature of golden Essence. I'm probably not even strong enough to lift a horse."
Myrrh "Well you can atleast tell us what happened here."
Corve says, "Talk while you walk, boys. And I didn't bring you out to help, Sixth. If you're gonna whine about being immaterial, I'll just send you back." That should make him stop bitching. Damn past incarnations always whining about not being around anymore. That's what PAST means. As in: not any more!
Myrrh "Well atleast he doesn't remember dieing."
Sixth Hour Fading considers punching Corve in the face...no...it would just make him uglier. He's already having trouble accepting that his newest incarnation is this unpretty.
Corve mutters, "Maybe if he did he wouldn't be such a pain in the ass."
Sixth Hour Fading Corve discovers that Sixth may not be strong enough to lift a horse, but is his strong enough to lift a smart-mouthed Assessor from Brume, put him over his knee and give him an old-fashioned lesson in disrespecting one's elders.
Myrrh just stares.
Sixth Hour Fading "Now, if you're done being rude, you have a monsterous undead behemoth to slay"
Sixth Hour Fading "Get to it!"
Corve brushes himself off and then glare sat Sixth. "I am totally learning meditation techniques to blank my mind, just to piass you off."
Sixth Hour Fading "I've seen your mind. There isn't all that much to blank."
Corve "Imagine if what little there is suddenly becomes inaccessible!" Corve snorts, and then tromps off. "Blad, anal retentive nercissist."
Sixth Hour Fading "They are probably waiting for you to enter that...place. And then they'll try to kill you. So I recommend you do whatever it is you can do to prevent them from succeeding."
Corve Bald*
Carmine glared at Sixth. "If you can't say anything constructive ... don't spank corve!"
Corve "Ignore him. He's like a walking pile of Obvious." Corve unholsters his six shooters before coming to a stop in front of the doors to the gigantic edifice. "Are we going in or what?"
Carmine nods resolutely.
Sixth Hour Fading grunts. "If you face them now, you'll be facing all the power of the Serpent of Shadows embodied in a Solar Exalted of not only much greater age then you, but greater experience and one taught by a creature even older then I."
Corve turns around and heaves his shoulders in a big sigh. "So what do you suggest, Sixth? Because if all you're gonna do is criticize without apporting anything, I'm gonna find a way to stick you in Myrrh's pet's head." Snuffles thinks less than Corve does!
Sixth Hour Fading "Slay the Shadow Serpent first."
Sixth Hour Fading smiles brightly.
Xar`Rex chuckles.
Corve "... You know, you're a smug bastard," Corve says, scratching his head. "So, where to, then, oh wise one with the lack of hair?"
Sixth Hour Fading "The city contains more then one way into the place the creature makes its lair. Go to another one, enter the passages and slay it. Thus the one it has given its soul to will be denied much of his power. Slay him then, and the deed will be complete. One hopes."
Sixth Hour Fading rubs his belly. "I wonder if I can eat food like this. I haven't had anything to eat in hundreds of years."
Myrrh "Sounds like a plan. I've been working on an attack that will unavoidably strike a ghost, demon, or spirit no matter what. Just in case."
Corve sighs. "One hopes. Okay. So, lead the way." Corve waves a hand for Sixth to walk ahead of them.
Xar`Rex follows, "Why didn't you do that in the first place?"
Sixth Hour Fading walks a few blocks, covering the ground fast with his huge stride and ignoring such things as dust storms and uneven footing, being made of Essence. He stops in front of a small, non-descript house.
Myrrh "Well because the idea didn't come to me."
Myrrh "It's similar to essence eatting only it goes directly to the pattern. I don't even think it can be defended against by spiritual armor."
Sixth Hour Fading "You'd be surprised what spiritual armor defends against, boy."
Xar`Rex shifts uncomfortably. "That is a terrible power to have."
Sixth Hour Fading peers at Xar. "Is that little Xoco in your head, Dragon-King?"
Myrrh "Boy? Listen here I don't see you running around coming up with ways to slay primordial monsters lately."
Corve "Tell Xeth to keep his scales on, Xar," Corve says as he steps over to the door of the house.
Myrrh "What do you mean terrible? It's not like we go fighting many gods...well there was that cannibal pig..."
Corve "You remember that? Ugly bitch," Corve opines to Myrrh.
Xar`Rex eyes Sixth, but answers Myrrh. "Terrible. Imagine if someone were to kill you and destroy your soul. You would never reincarnate."
Sixth Hour Fading glowers at Myrrh. "I spent my time slaying Primordials."
Corve asides to Carmine, "He mentions it every chance he gets. It's all he can talk about. See why I'm moody half the time?"
Sixth Hour Fading "No one appreciates anything anymore. Free the world from slavery to the twisted beings what created it and what do you get? Stuck in someone's head, called up like a ghost and made fun of. You young people just don't respect your elders."
Corve accents, "See?!"
Myrrh "Well I'd say the snake deserves it."
Myrrh "And anyway this is helping me. I'm another step closer to understanding soul steel."
Sixth Hour Fading "You might want to go inside. Before they realize you are coming in the front door and start looking for you."
Carmine "You could just pass on." She points out. "Anyway, where is this tunnel?" She pushes the door inwards resolutely
Xar`Rex shakes his head, "He's right." He goes inside after Carmine"
Corve rolls his eyes and wraps his hand around Carmine's waist, following.
Myrrh follows the others, looking forward to shooting this arrow. Sol knows this thing is going to explode."
Sixth Hour Fading Inside the little house there is a pit in the floor. Not elegant, not round, not even lit. Just a pit. In the floor. Leading down into unending darkness. Sixth points at it. "That's it."
Xar`Rex "Lovely."
Carmine jumps down it.
Corve follows unceremoniouusly. "See you down there, guys."
Sixth Hour Fading "I like her. Direct action. Refreshing."
Sixth Hour Fading follows
Xar`Rex follows as well, though his is a controlled fall.
Myrrh rides down with Xar, wondering just why he's so upset about killing spirits. You'd think Xeth would be thrilled he had someone who could zap demons.
Sixth Hour Fading Carmine lands and rolls, coming to her feet without any problem. Sixth lands on his feet and starts looking around, apparently curious. Xar lands easily, his wings having guided him down. Corve...well Corve realizes that jumping down an endless pit may not have been the best idea when he doesn't have a way to ignore the impact.
Sixth Hour Fading Good thing Xar catches him!
Corve was totally sure someone would save him. Unperturbed, Corve grins at the Dragon King. "Thanks, Xar." He brushes himself off, and walks over to Carmine, glancing around.
Xar`Rex smiles back. "You are welcome."
Sixth Hour Fading The place at the bottom of the pit is strange. Of course, most places the Circle visits are strange. But this one is especially strange. It doesn't seem to exist. They're standing on grey fog, surrounded by grey fog and everything around them seems to be made from varying densities of grey fog. When they look at any specific part for too long, it disappears into nothing but darkness. Only when they look away does the fog retur
Carmine "This place ... is weird."
Sixth Hour Fading "Well, it doesn't exist, does it? Not in the Underworld, not in Creation. Not really anywhere. Not even Elsewhere."
Xar`Rex "A strange fog. Hm.."
Corve says, "I hate it when you people get all metaphysical on me. It obviously exists or we couldn't be here." He rolls his eyes. "Where to now?" He peers around.
Xar`Rex walks forward.
Myrrh "We're in the Labyrinth."
Myrrh "Be careful of spectres." Tries to get some scrapings from the walls."
Sixth Hour Fading "Don't be foolish, of course we're not."
Sixth Hour Fading The walls stop existing when Myrrh tries to scrape them.
Myrrh "I thought that's where the serpent was."
Sixth Hour Fading "If he was in the Labyrinth, he'd be dead. He'd be just another Hekatonkhire and your lady-friend there could smite him with her pinky. Assuming she has Hekatonhkire-smiting Charms."
Corve adds to Carmine, smirking, "He assumes a lot." Pause. "Do you? Have those Charms?" Another, longer pause, and then to Myrrh: "What the hell is a Hekantokhire?"
Sixth Hour Fading "But he isn't dead, so he isn't in the Labyrinth and neither are we. We're in a place between places that doesn't exist." He eyes Corve. "Because obviously if it existed, we could see it."
d- -b shrugs. "It doesn't really matter whether it exists, doesn't exist, or might exist at some point in a potential future, or has existed and might exist again but is currently in a phase of non-existing. Unless we have something that we need to be doing here, we need to move on. We have a Creation to save." he explains gravely, before pausing. "I mean, er, "yar!"."
Carmine "... I don't think so. Just normal smiting charms."
Xar`Rex "Yar?"
Sixth Hour Fading "You know, your eyes are sort of a purple color." Sixth peers at Oteki...
Corve looks at Oteki and raises a brow. "...Yar?" He coughs. "He is kind of weird," Corve comments to Sixth as they walk.
Myrrh "A Hekantokhire is the ghost of a Behemoth. They were all so unique that they weren't really built in with the ability to die."
Myrrh "So they tend to...linger."
Captain Oteki gives Sixth a grin. "You may be smarter than you look. A good thing, too."
Sixth Hour Fading "I know, you don't expect people as handsome as I am to be very smart." He grins.
Captain Oteki "Exactly."
Xar`Rex wanders forward, lookig for... anything
Corve does the same as Xar, holding on to Carmine's hand. "Expect you to be smug about it, though," he mutters, still searching for any indication as to what they're supposed to find.
Sixth Hour Fading "For those of you who still have souls and such, you may want to start thinking very hard about the Serpent of Shadows. Since this place doesn't exist, it isnt all that concerned with geography. So you rather just have to know that you're there instead of wondering when you will be."
Corve sighs and starts to think about the Shadow Serpent. He thinks about it a lot as it is, so it's not really a hard thing to do.
Carmine thinks about it too. And just how much she wants to fight it.
Xar`Rex concentrates on the serpent, and his friends, all together in the same spot, hidden beyond the sight of the Serpent
Sixth Hour Fading nods and raises an arm to point at the dark shadowy form now visible in the distance. "See?"
Myrrh "Mind over matter."
Sixth Hour Fading "Half right, anyway. Well, now you'd best be slaying it."
Corve rolls his eyes. "Let's go." He strarts heading towards the shadowy shape.
Myrrh prepares the bow and arrow.
Captain Oteki draws Hexblade. It hums with inauspiciousness.
Corve walks towards the Shadow Serpent, his anima roaring to life; the necklace around his neck lifting slightly from his chest as he raises his defenses to phenomenal new levels that the others have not witnessed before. He appears to almost cease being solid; rather, he shimmers as he walks, as if under the effect of golden strobe lights that flicker, cutting his movements, making him indistinguishable at random,
Corve * flashing intervals.
Captain Oteki proceeds to sit down for a moment, and with strange calm and concentration (especially for Oteki), draw two long prayer strips from a small case in his satchel. The first, he affixes to Hexblade, where it begins to throb with violet light. The second, he wraps over his eyes, and though there is a brief shimmer of violet as the magic activates, the main effect is that dark, arterial blood begins to seep out from beneath it.
Captain Oteki then stands, and takes a deep breath. After a final moment of concentration, he begins to stride toward the Serpent. This particular stride is probably the creepiest-looking thing EVER, because a lot of the steps he takes don't seem to come one after the other, and seem to follow some sort of non-euclidian path that makes his movements strangely jerky and out of sync.
Xar`Rex stares at Oteki, then shakes his head again. As he does, his form shifts and grows, becoming as large as a tyrant lizard, and considerably more vicious which is a bit odd as he is also made of stone.
Myrrh steps behind the others, not nearly as impressive looking with his plain looking short bow and single golden arrow. However as he stands and takes careful aim at the dark mass of the serpent in front of him the air starts to whine and there's the smell of spent essence. The ground starts to crumble slightly around him as if pushed down by an invisible force. "Everyone cover their ears..."
Carmine smiles, and then explodes with dark void-filled energy, wrapping tight around her body, blowing away the dress, leaving her with just her ribbons ... now bleached white. In her hand, Eminence appears, shining golden and red then flickering to black.
Sixth Hour Fading looks at the five and gives a small smile. "Well. Maybe Creation isn't doomed after all." Sixth explodes in a brilliant shower of light, releasing Corve's motes back into him. After all, he can't do much down here and Corve might need the power used to animate his form.
ST In the distance ahead...well, maybe not "distance". It looked distant until they started staring at it and then, in a very big no-time-at-all, it was right there in front of them, looking down at them. While it may be called the Great Serpent of Shadows, "serpent" is only a very loose term. It certainly is not a snake.
ST Vast, round and legless may be all it has in common with a snake. Its hide is covered in thick layers of slime and mucus, but under that it looks rubbery and black with nary a trace of scales. The six eyes that peer out from its distorted face are not slitted nor serpentine, they gaze at the Circle with disturbing humanity, bright blue and friendly-looking.
Corve says, "Hi. We're going to kill you."
Carmine "Very, very dead."
ST Its mouth is on the end of a snout, but not the blunt muzzle of a snake. Pointy and somewhat beaklike, it opens its mouth and hisses out breath that stinks of death through fangs as long as Myrrh is tall. Lots of fangs. It then smiles. And speaks in a deep, smooth bass voice that oozes friendship and reasonableness.
ST "Well, I did assume so."
Corve blinks, and tilts his head. "Oh, you can talk. I really don't know why I assumed you couldn't." Beat. "I'm assuming you don't want to die, right? Because if you do this could all go so much quicker..."
ST "I have already died."
Corve rolls his eyes. "Let's not dwell on technicalities. I mean really die. As in: forever and done."
ST "Ah. Well, then no. I do not wish to cease existing. Why should I? I find it quite pleasant to exist. Even this place of nothing, it is preferable to mindless rampaging as a Hekatonkhire in the Underworld."
ST "But I must warn you, in all fairness. I have stood against a hundred of the greatest Exalted to walk this world. And while they are dust and bones and memories, I am still here in my own fashion. If you wish to simply leave, I will understand."
Myrrh "Rather personable for someone sinking an island..."
Captain Oteki takes a long, hard look at the creature, and then takes a breath, waiting for the conversation to lull. "Ahem." he says finally. "My name is Oteki Shriwaan. By mandate of the Violet Bier of Sorrows and the Most Ominous Subdivision of Unfated Endings, I regret to inform you that you are an unacceptable and unknown variable, and as a result, must be removed from the equation. Nothing personal."
Corve sighs, and purses his lips. "You realize that that presents a problem to us, right? Because your followers kind of want to bring you back, and they killed a lot of people to do so. Those people are dead in the way you don't want to be. I'm just saying, you seem to be a reasonable... uh... being. Don't you think it's rather unfa--" And then Oteki is speaking. "... Oh you've gotta be kidding me."
ST "Ah...well, I had wondered about Heaven getting involved."
ST "Yes, yes. I did have to bring an island crashing down from the sky and yes, it did kill a rather lot of people. But it was nothing personal. I have no intention of doing so again. There were things there I had to see destroyed and that was the only way to do it. I do feel sorrowful that my warnings were disregarded."
ST "I did offer the people there a chance to flee for their lives. But no one took it seriously."
ST If a giant snake-thing-monster can shrug, this one does. "But I suppose there really was no hoping they would. After all, islands don't fall from the sky that often. And so there was a lot of death and destruction and now you're here to kill me."
Corve heaves a sigh, turning back to the serpent. "You got a name, other than the Serpent of Shadows?"
Myrrh "Wait, Oteki's a Sidreal?!"
Myrrh "I thought ninjas weren't supposed to be so...flamboyant."
Corve shrugs at Myrrh. He isn't exactly surprised. Not that he expected it, but... the dude is weird, man.
ST "I was called Darkhunter, Devourer of Nations, Bringer of the Terrors of Darkness. Son of the First Shadow, Master of those Without Limbs and First Among the Shadow-Shaped. I am Sceadu, the Master of Dark Coils."
Oteki raises an eyebrow, and then his sword, which he uses to salute Myrrh. "You obviously fell for my disguise, then, didn't you?" he replies with a grin.
ST "If it wasn't for you wanting to kill me, I'm sure we could all be friends. However, I shall have to do my best to slay you mercilessly. Nothing personal you realize."
Corve sighs and resists looking impatient at the rattling off of names. "So, can I call you Sceadu, then? For short?"
ST "Of course."
Oteki then focuses on the Serpent. "Also, as an aside, since we're being friendly at the moment, how does one spell that? For our records, I mean."
ST politely spells his name for the Sidereal.
Corve grins. "Great. Well, Sceadu," Corve is being exceedingly pleasant about this. "This is Glorious Carmine Elegance, my... uh... girlfriend. I'm sure you've met, actually. And that over there is Myrrh, my friend. The large lizard is Xar'Rex, another friend. And this is... Oteki. A Sidereal. I guess." He shrugs. "He's weird. And I'm Corve."
Carmine "Have we all finally stopped talking?" Carmine demands, following the introduction.
Oteki grins. "Yes, yes, go to it, ma'am."
Sceadu "Yes, I suppose we have said all there is to be said, my dear. I am sorry you decided not to join me, but I do not hold it against you."
Carmine "Good." And then she charged.
Corve blinks at Carmine. "Sorry, dear. Right then." Corve smiles at Sceadu. "So. See you when I die." Because the Serpent's going first. "There she goes..." He's kind of smitten all over again. And then he launches forward.
Sceadu opens his mouth wide and hisses, striking at blinding speed to pierce Carmine's lovely chest with his fangs.
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