< Dragomir | The Royal Travessians | Session2 >
Torvar It was a dark and stormy night.
Torvar Castle Travessia was mostly quiet; the invisible servants had been dispelled and the real ones had gone to bed. A single light burned in the topmost tower, and the chapel was, as always, ablaze with holy light, but besides that, all was dark and still. Or perhaps only almost all....
Torvar was abed, sleeping the heavy, self-righteous sleep of somebody who has stopped three fratricides in the last day.
Catriana is lying in bed, her covers pulled over her head so no one can see the light spell she cast. She'd been trying to figure out a spell all day - the silly little cantrip called Prestidigitation, and she couldn't sleep, so she flipped her spellbook open again and glared at it.
Dragomir was up on the roof again.
Hermes Below the walls of the castle was an inn, typical of the small town breed but slightly more upscale as it was right next to the castle. It was open late because Hermes was playing cards with his friends. He often had his layabout, good-for-nothing lot near him. He was more than a little drunk.
Rosemarie was up explaining to her diary, at great length, what a jerk Torvar could be. In the chapel, because it was a safe bet that no one would come there to interrupt her.
Torvar Rain slashed against the cobblestones and panes, thunder crashed...and then, abruptly, the raging storm was gone, and the skies were clear. Clear enough that someone looking out a window suddenly might notice the enormous ancient black dragon coming in for a landing.
Catriana "Finally, that storm was really distracting!" she mutters quietly, her voice muffled by the covers, and attempts to blow a gust of wind at her spellbook to turn the page.
Dragomir stood up from where the rocky overhang of the central tower largely protected him against the assault of the elements, and walked carefully to the edge of the roof. "Hrmm."
Hermes Hermes stopped with his cup at his lips. He saw the dragon. He said, "Aw, shit, I'm too drunk for that. Guys, do you see that? Because if you do, man, I'm terrible for this but I hope it's gonna go to the castle 'cause I don't wanna die."
Rosemarie Rosemarie, deep into a listing of the many reasons Torvar will never find true love or happiness, doesn't notice a thing. Plus, pretty colored glass windows block the view.
Torvar turns over and snores.
Hermes'sBuddies look out the window, blink, and mostly freeze up. A few start crying, but quietly.
The_Dragon lands directly on the inn, its claws crushing the roof and leaving the timbers holding up the top floor swaying in a most untimberlike fashion. As part compensation, though, it does breathe a bunch of acid on the castle's front gate.
Dragomir does not hesitate to duck away and run back into the castle.
Hermes would just /run/. He was quick and agile and he would just /run/. The first thing he would think of was a place to hide - a drainage ditch filled with water where he couldn't be seen, possibly under the a little stone bridge to get over it. His hands were shaking in terror. But then he knew he'd make for the postern gate.
Torvar Hermes made it safely to the ditch, then made for the gate, without the dragon taking any notice of him. As he approached the postern gate, though, he noticed a particularly familiar silvery light...
Rosemarie heard some kind of horrible noise as the acid hit the front gate, and jumped up to go find out what was happening.
Lucy "Hermes Travessia! WHAT are you doing out here? You're supposed to be IN YOUR ROOM!" She leveled a holy finger at her son threateningly.
Torvar woke up at the sound of acid, whatever the sound of acid is, and took only a moment to grab his axe and shield and run down into the courtyard, where he presumably bumped into both Rosemarie and Dragomir.
Catriana poked her head out from under the sheets. "What was that?" She grabbed her spellbook and a blanket and ran to the window!
Dragomir "We have a small problem."
Hermes would say, "For crying out loud, mom, /there's a dragon!/ Right now, smashed the inn! A /dragon!/" He pointed towards town.
Torvar "Shut up, Dragomir. What's going on out there? Dragomir, do you know?"
Dragomir shut up obediently, as was proper to do when ordered in a crisis situation by an older relative.
Lucy "Yeah. I know. That's why I'm here. Don't worry, okay? Just go inside. Mom's gonna take care of everything." She patted her son on the shoulder, then lightly shoved him towards the postern gate. Then she turns, drawing her holy avenger, and sets off towards the inn.
Rosemarie "What was that noise?" Rosemarie demanded of Torvar.
Torvar "How should I know?"
Torvar "Just calm down, okay? Where is your SWORD?"
Dragomir "That was probably the dragon," Dragomir said in an aside to his sister.
Torvar spins. "Dragon? What dragon?"
Rosemarie "Well you apparently know /everything/, so--wait, dragon?"
The Dragon? breathes acid again, melting the entire gate, and leaving him looking directly into the courtyard.
Hermes went to where the others were. He was cold, wet and pissed off. He was scared, too, but he was hiding that, appearing cocky, instead. "Hey, hell of a night. The dragon trashed the inn, pretty cool, huh?"
Dragomir "That dragon," he said, pointing helpfully at the beast which had just melted the gate.
Torvar "What were you DOING out there? The dragon could have KILLED you!"
Torvar "Oh my."
Hermes "No way, calm down, Tor. By the big balls of the gods, it's just a dragon, right?"
Torvar "Just a dragon. And TIAMAT's just a...dragon, a guess. You get the point, dammit."
Rosemarie "My sword's upstairs." She started to turn, then said, "Wait, where's Cat? CAT!"
Hermes "Just one head, Tor. Be calm. Mom had her sword and she's /mom/," Hermes said but he was freaking out inside. Torvar was supposed to be the calm one.
Catriana had run down the stairs, just as Rosemarie called her name, "Rose! what's going ON!?"
Dragomir "There's a dragon."
Catriana "a WHAT?" she screeched
Rosemarie "It's a DRAGON, where's my SWORD, where's Mom and Dad?" Rose pelted inside and up the stairs, headed for her gear.
Hermes rolled his eyes. He /expected/ Cat to freak out, after all.
Sirgili "Mom is out front, and I'm right here." The calm voice of their father sounds, and he is suddenly among them, looking out at the dragon with cold eyes.
Catriana "Ugh dragons are all SLIMY"
Hermes "Cool, Dad. Kick it's ass!" he said, because he figured there was nothing mom and dad couldn't take care of. They'd fought dragons before, right?
Torvar "Dad. Thank the Gods. Is Mom going to be all right?"
Dragomir "You're such a baby, Cat" Dragomir said to himself
Catriana glares at Drago, then turns to her father "Dad, can we kill it?"
Hermes "Of course mom is gonna be alright. You say the dumbest things, Tor."
Sirgili "No. We will kill it. You stay here. Those things are very dangerous."
Torvar The shining figure of Lucy Travessia, chosen of the Gods, abruptly appears in the gate. Lowering her sword, she bellows, "Come down off that dragon and face me like a man!" For the first time, the children notice that the dragon has a rider.
Rosemarie stopped, only a couple of steps up the stairs, when she heard their father's voice. She came back outside to watch, now that things were taken care of.
Hermes shouted down to the dragonrider, "Yeah! You stupid punk! My mom's gonna kick your ass!"
Catriana runs up next to Rosemarie and watches the battle. "I want a dragon to ride. Or maybe a unicorn."
Rosemarie "No /way/," said Rosemarie scornfully, eyes fixed on her mother. "You can't ride a unicorn."
Dragomir chuckles.
Hermes mutters to himself, "Oh, Cat will be able to ride unicorns when she's sixty."
Catriana "Can TOO"
Torvar "Shut up, kids, I'm trying to watch this."
The Dragon? pauses, apparently thinking, then sinuously kneels, bending its neck, and the rider, a figure in coal-black armor, strides down its lowered head and steps to the ground, drawing his sword as he does so. "I do not fear you, Lucy Travessia, nor your pathetic gods. I am Drakhan the Unacceptable, and I have come to--"
Dragomir "Not if Tobias Wolfsblood has anything to say about it," Drago says to Hermes, before noticing how SHAMEFULLY drunk he is.
Sirgili "Yes, Drakhan, we know who you are. What do you want? We're out of the business."
Hermes "Drakhan the /Unacceptable/? Were all the cool evil names taken?" Then he looked over at Dragomir, eyebrow perked. "Rosemarie'll just steal Toby away before it goes to that."
Torvar "Rosemarie's a PALADIN, Hermes."
Torvar "Be QUIET!"
Drakhan pauses, then addresses Sirgili. "Nobody stays out of the business forever, Sirg. Sooner or later we'll end up tangling. Let's make it now."
Catriana "Shut up about Toby!"
Hermes ignores Torvar. "Have you ever thought that maybe she's a paladin of /evil/? I mean, Rose /good/? C'mon! Plus, I call dibs on the evil guy's sword."
Torvar "You can't even USE a sword."
Rosemarie actually dropped the argument, watching Drakhan and their parents with the beginnings of a worried frown.
Torvar "I mean, a longsword. That sword is definitely long."
Hermes "I'll grow into it." He shrugged.
Lucy "You can't take us both. You never could. Remember the Seven Waterfalls of Galizei? When you tried to double-cross us and..."
Drakhan "Yeah, I remember, Lucy. That was then. This is now. While I was venturing into Hades to reclaim Shadowdeath from the hands of the dead gods, you were raising a family."
Drakhan "We all make choices." He swings his sword up, meeting Lucy's with eldritch sparks. "This was mine."
Sirgili mutters an arcane word and vanishes, and the battle is joined in earnest. Holy explosions, arcane horrors, undead monstrosities, all are called up, exploited, dodged, defended or destroyed.
Catriana cheers her parents on!
Rosemarie watched with every ounce of her attention, making little motions with her fists and scuffing her feet as she tried to keep up with the action.
Hermes At first, Hermes was mocking Drakhan. But as things progressed, he got a deep sick feeling in his stomach. The shakes came back. He slipped away and got his sword and his things. He wasn't a genius, but he was reasonably perceptive. He said to Torvar, "Uh, Tor, we . . . I . . . think . . . I know where the postern gate is. I think we . . . look, I . . . we should go. /Now/."
Torvar As things go on, though, it becomes apparent to those who wish to see it that Drakhan does, indeed, outclass Lucy and Sirgili, even together. They begin slowing down, panting, missing opportunities, and taking injuries. Little ones at first, but Drakhan kept coming, each stroke the same as the last...and he didn't slow down.
Torvar didn't react. To anything. He stood there, watching the fight, with the dumb look in his eyes of a steer that's just been slaughtered. Occasionally his hand twitched on his axe.
Dragomir grabbed his older brother's shoulder. "Tor. TOR." He shook a little. "Wake up."
Rosemarie was slow to catch on, too wrapped up in her belief that their parents--that Mom--was going to turn it around any second now. Gradually the excitement drained out of her face; she wanted to look over at Torvar for guidance, but couldn't take her eyes off the fight.
Hermes "/Tor!/" Hermes said. "It's time to /go/." Then to Dragomir, "You handle him, I'll get the twins." He went to Cat and Rose and said, "Hey, you guys got everything. Look, it's time to blow this place, right? The postern gate . . . we need to get to the postern gate." He acted like he was cool and in control, but he wanted to vomit.
Catriana "We've gotta help them!"
Catriana "We can't just LEAVE!"
Torvar stood there, and stood there...and then he charged, screaming and raising his axe, just as Drakhan's sword cut through Lucy's armor and into her heart, and, with a surprised look in her grey eyes, she fell to the ground.
Hermes "Cat, we can't help them!" Hermes said. "We CAN'T. All of us together couldn't match mom on the worst day of her life! The bad guy is going to WIN. Our parents are going to LOSE!" And then Drakhan struck and he said, softly, 'Dammit, Cat, I can't loose you, too."
Catriana "MOOOOOOOOM! NOOOO!" She started to run towards them, defying all wisdom
Dragomir "Oh no," Drago whispered, and he stopped to blink for just a second, before grabbing Tor's arm. "Stop! Stop it!"
Rosemarie Rosemarie's hand shot out to catch Catriana's arm, her grip like steel.
Torvar shook his arm violently, trying to dislodge Dragomir and continue his hopeless assault.
Hermes Hermes grabbed Cat, too, pulling her back, "No, Catriona! No! Damn it! We NEED you to be SMART. You're the SMART one!"
Drakhan pulls the blade out of Lucy and, with the same motion, whips it around, separating Sirgili's head from his shoulders, lips still muttering an incantation as it hurtles towards the ground.
Dragomir 's hands, though not strong, gripped as hard as they could, digging their nails into Torvar's arm. "Stop."
Catriana struggled against her siblings, screaming, but she was no match for them.
Torvar takes a step, dragging Dragomir by main force, and then another...and them stops. Blood drips from his bitten lip.
Drakhan points the bloody tip of his sword at the children...and smiles, and gestures with the point, urging them to come forward.
Rosemarie jerked Catriana backwards when Drakhan pointed his sword, tears running down her face. "No," she whispered.
Hermes said, "We have to go. Do you think that mom and dad would want us to throw away our lives? It's time to /run/. And pray, and be smart and quick on our feet. But first we've got to live." He looked down at Drakhan, and for the first time in his life he knew hatred. "There will be another day for him. This day, we must live."
Drakhan "Talkative little brat."
Drakhan "Nobody wants to play?" He held the pose for a moment longer, then shrugged, bending down to wipe his blade on Sirgili's robes.
Drakhan "Well, any time you feel up to it, just let me know. I'll be waiting." He turned, and climbed up onto the dragon, which had held still, unmoving, this entire time.
Rosemarie A shudder went through Rosemarie when Drakhan wiped his sword on their father's robe, but she kept her grip on Catriana's arm and her steady pull backwards.
Dragomir "We need to go," he said quietly.
Hermes whispered, "We need to go now, before he remembers it's best to kill all the kids, too."
Torvar doesn't move.
Torvar "...we need to bury...the bodies."
Dragomir "We can't." His voice was completely monotone as he spoke. "We need to leave."
Torvar "And go where?"
Hermes said to Torvar, "Do you want to watch Dragomir die? Or the twins? Goddamn, Tor! Be responsible! I'm no good at it" Then: "Away from here!"
Dragomir "Anywhere," he said.
Torvar looks back, then. "Go inside, then. Get food. We'll need supplies. If we just charge off into the wilderness we'll be dead in days."
Torvar "If he comes back...I'll yell, and you run."
The Dragon? snorted, then flapped its wings, once, twice, and leaped...and it was gone. Slowly, it begins to rain again.
Hermes would nod, and hope that Tor had it together because if he didn't, well, he would be dead. Hermes ran to the kitchen. He had all of this things, already, and he had quick hands for this kind of thing. He started stuffing his rucksack full of things that would last, things that were /dense/. Heavy breads that would keep, containers of butter, anything preserved - dried meats and fruits - until his back couldn't fit any more.
< Dragomir | The Royal Travessians | Session2 >
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