Evernight. It sprawled upward, crystals and stone and gothic protrusions and extensions and add-ons, the work of hundreds of years built atop the bones of the work of thousands of years, a twisting labyrinthine wreck of architectural styles and the crumbling shale of the so-called 'Dark Continent', a shattered hand reaching for the magenta sky.
Within, deeper, below the levels that had subsided around the fall of the old Kingdoms - not the ones before the Unification Wars, the ones that had existed before
that - below the tunnels worn smooth simply by the passage of a single pair feet over their protrusions again and again, below even that, lay a chamber. While that chamber was not normally
peaceful, it was normally… minimally disturbed.
Now, however, the air was fogged. Thick with the mist that lingered if enough Grimm matter dispersed in a short enough period of time. Through that black mist came the sounds of clashing blades, rending flesh, gunshots. And occasionally, like the flare of some lighthouse seen at night, a light cold and silver and warm.
Another blast of it - I scrambled, compressed the flecks of Grimm matter in the air enough to leave me with a crumbling shell of dissolving rock after the light had faded, flexed my hands then threw them
wide, ropes of energy knotting and whipping forward, a single impact enough to light the nerves with agony. A shape through the fog ducked two, a bronzed flash of metal blocking another, followed by an answering gunshot - this, at least, I could accept, letting it pulverise my shoulder before the warped flesh and splattered blood reversed, sealed back together - a gesture brought more Grimm to the fray, momentary distractions to find a new angle before another searing beam of that light could find me again.
It was becoming increasingly clear that whatever reports I had received on Summer Rose had
drastically underestimated how competent a fighter she was. Oh, it had been clear she was annoyingly good, but her performance today, storming
my castle, showed her to be… well, not the
best fighter I had ever seen, but easily within the top twenty. The top twenty! Over my whole life! She and Ozma's stray bird had carved through the Grimm surrounding the castle, entered through the front gate, shattered seals I renewed in strength and fidelity each and every year, marching down to
this room with a singular purpose that could barely be slowed, let alone halted -
I should have had her dealt with years ago. Especially given her ties to Ozma. Though perhaps that would not have been so easy - I stepped, again, over Rosie's body, her gasmask shattered, jaw split by a heavy axe blow. I tried not to read accusation in her blank stare, and held down the twitch of jealousy - that she had slipped away from just a single blow after her aura had collapsed.
If only, if only, if only.
"Face me." It would have been easier if it was a shout. But Summer Rose simply said the words, flat and firm, woven through with determination that had roots so deep it would take years to root out, if it was even possible. "We both know I can't
kill you. What are you afraid of, Salem? Face me."
If only she
could kill me. But that wasn't the risk with silver eyed warriors, was it? I hissed, tangled together more strands of magic, fired, this time for the
other shadow in the room - a low corvid
waark echoed the Branwen's evasion and I resisted the urge to swear, barely.
Against any other opponent, I could end this battle in a few moments. There was a
reason Evernight had not been assaulted more than twice in its long life. I could simply walk through the hail of fire I was presented with, reform, and murder every enemy I faced. Even another silver-eyed warrior, while a formidable foe, would not necessarily halt me.
But this Summer Rose… her eyes prevented me from closing the distance, or from fully leveraging my hated curse against her. They also prevented a wide array of magical options - over the last few centuries I had focused myself on Grimm manipulation with my sorcery and it didn't matter how many limbs of tangling Grimm or constructs or even full manifestations I could form with a wave of my hand if just as quickly they could be seared from existence. Now, normally I could rely on
endurance to wear a silver-eyed warrior down - using their
skills cost them in fatigue, but Summer Rose's soul's fragment of stolen magic halted that. Her Semblance ensured she
would not get fatigued unless I pressed her further in combat, which I
couldn't do because of her eyes -
And fine, she would need to sleep eventually. She had a comrade I could kill, eventually. But she had also, somehow, found something that could truly harm me, and I could do
nothing but fire off more futile blasts of low grade generic magic as another actinic light swept through the fog - not at me, this time, but at what was
in the chamber.
The Grimm pool. Maybe not my only one, but my deepest, the one I used for my research. Each blast she fired into it… even allowing for the degrading effect of the light the more
densely packed the matter was, and how dense liquid Destruction could become if it was allowed, she was destroying maybe - I slid to a halt, crouched low next to the lip of the pool, judged. Maybe a decade's worth of material, maybe more with each blast. She'd already stripped away at least a century. And the pools were
not bottomless. There was a real risk that if I was disincorporated, enough that it took me real
time to reform, even if it was only an hour, that I could come back to find this well drained to a few thousand years worth of supply, if not gone entirely.
And that was before the possibilities of what the light could do to
me. I had suffered under a warrior's glare before, and while no bars were ready to hold me after petrification, it was a deeply unpleasant experience, like -
-
like molten rock pressing down for years, reforming only long enough to scream before I was crushed in an instant -
-
like the weight of Destruction itself clawing into me as I realised this wasn't the end at all, this wouldn't grant me oblivion, that it couldn't do it, that maybe nothing could -
-
like a castle stone heaving away and seeing fire creep over fur and stitches and realising -
It was best
avoided. And worse, perhaps, the potential for it to - to slowly flay the Grimm matter from my body, my mind, my soul, the slow conflict that would cause even if incomplete… I only had to have experienced that once to know that I never wanted it to happen again.
Never.
"You can't kill me. Can't defeat me." I tried to make my voice as cold as possible, implacable, not the faintest hint of wavering despair at the idea of more years of struggle rationing my material for further Grimm might cause. "Do you really want to die here?"
"We don't have to kill you to stop you." A twitch in the fog, and I crossed my arms, my wrist taking the heavy hunting round that might have splattered my head apart long enough for her to close the distance, unleash that light on me. "And we
will stop you. Or, at the very least,
hurt you."
I swallowed a growl. This would be easier with my agents helping, but I had arrived to the fight late, cautious -
too cautious, like I was
Ozma - and my council lay shattered. Rosie, dead. Rene - my eyes flicked to the pillar he lay behind, bleeding slowly from the deep puncture through his hip from where Summer's axe spur had ripped through him. Hazel, half embedded in the wall, head slumped in what I hoped was unconsciousness. Mircalla, what remained of her chest splayed open, the stink of her offal filling the air as her eyes stared sightless into the fog. Coral slumped, half conscious with the fragments of her sword around her. And - a gurgle as the last of their lieutenants was slain by the Branwen. Not as good a fighter as Summer Rose, but good enough that fighting them both at once…
If I fell for long enough, the damage they could both do would be immense. No, while my curse granted me the ability to
endure despite my own wishes, I could not fall here. Not even for an instant. I summoned my will, compressed the air into
wind - elemental effects, while I had not practiced them in… what, two centuries? That sounded right. Regardless, they were simple enough that I could tangle them, chill the air, blast the fog apart for a moment -
there! I levelled a hand at the Branwen, still posed from having slain the last of Coral's forces, and her eyes widened as a
lash of magic struck her, the shield of her soul glimmering orange as she writhed, I just had to keep her
down -
A flicker of white in the corner of my eye, the flutter of a cloak. A flash of light.
Barely, just barely, I managed to twist my form into a puddle of darkness, spill myself
down just ahead of Summer's gaze, scrambling and flowing round and - and into the swing of her axe, hard enough to splatter me into two halves, one crumbling to nothing as I pushed myself upright, my torso and legs and dress reforming fast enough I could just barely spin out of her followup shots, could summon roaring fire between us so she wouldn't
follow.
This was unworkable. I needed more than luck and my curse. I needed…
I needed a plan.
-.-.-
Welcome to your tutorial Battle scene! Where all your allies are down or dead, any Grimm you summon are at an immediate disadvantage, and Salem herself is put in a combat situation that negates her biggest strengths.
… maybe tutorial isn't the right word.
Threats: Each Turn of this Battle Summer is left undisrupted she will damage the Pools of Grimm resource. If this Battle is lost, the Pools of Grimm resource will go from effectively unlimited within the scope of this Quest to needing to be rationed, with a limited number of uses.
Potential Rewards: On Victory in this Battle, ?????
A Plan of Attack
Vote for any or all of the actions below to take during the upcoming Battle Turn. Picking more than
two will cause increasing penalties to all Actions. Choose wisely.
You may make write-in Actions, but please do not vote for them until I have approved them and added them to this.
Voting will be open for 48 hours.
Remember as well you may enhance an Action with Salem's thirst for destruction, guaranteeing its success, but ensuring it will be achieved as destructively as possible.
[ ] Attack Summer and Raven Directly - Put an end to this. Walk into their fire, weather it, and emerge with nails dripping in blood No. There is currently no way this would work. The risk to myself is too high to even attempt this without further support.
[ ] Divide Them (Mentally) - The hearts of men are easily swayed, and half of the problems of this fight come from facing two opponents. If I can distract them, or even better turn them against each other, an opportunity for a more direct assault may become possible.
- A target (either Summer or Raven) may be chosen for this Action; mark the preferred target in square brackets after the vote (for instance, [X] Divide Them (Mentally) [Raven]). If no target is chosen, then Salem will choose to target whoever she feels is more open to distraction and division.
- If making this vote, an approach may be written in as a subvote of no more than 25 words. If not, Salem will choose an approach she feels best fits what she knows of the target.
- Roll Difficulty will be determined by chosen approach and target.
- Potential Complications: Hardened resolve, a returned comment that hits close to home for Salem, or a disadvantaged position in combat caused by stopping to talk.
- This Action can be taken no more than twice, once for each potential target (Summer and Raven).
[ ] Divide Them (Physically) - Another problem is their easy ability to cover each other's backs. Any attack I land on one opens me to a counterattack by the other, and given that I can only seem to land attacks on the Branwen, that means opening myself to counterattacks by Summer. Unacceptable - my magic and skill in combat should allow me to separate them…
- Roll difficulty is currently 3d10, Risky (3) (+4 for A Gift From the Gods, -2 and Risky (+1) for Silver Eyed Warrior, -1 due to difficulty, and Risky (+1) due to Raven's Semblance and A Bird's Eye making it difficult to separate them for long).
- Potential Complications: It leaves Salem open for an attack, the attempt injures one of Salem's fallen Agents, or it risks the structural integrity of the subterranean room.
- This Action can be taken any number of times - rather than separate rolls, each Action after this first makes the roll easier, with the second dropping the Riskiness by 1, the third increasing the roll by +2, and each subsequent increasing the roll by +1.
[ ] Call Grimm - While… limited in their utility against Summer Rose, cold bodies could be useful in providing a tide of force to keep these huntresses
down. A number are already making their way into this room, drawn by the conflict, but if I could call or manifest something truly
dangerous…
- Each time this Action is taken, gain a pool of 3 Points. These points may be spent on any of the options below to add them to the fight. Mark the chosen options with this Action by placing them in square brackets after the vote (for example, [X] Call Grimm [2xBeowolf Alpha] [Ursa Major]).
- [Beowolf Alpha] - 1 Point. Comes with a small pack of Beowolves.
- [Ursa Major] - 1 Point. Comes with a small group of Ursai.
- [King Taijitu] - 2 Points.
- [Feilong] - 2 Points.
- [Beringel] - 2 Points.
- [Centinel Major] - 2 Points.
- [Deathstalker] - 3 Points.
- No potential complications.
[ ] Resuscitate an Agent - My Agents are my best hope at evening the field, since they could approach Summer in combat without fear of her greatest weapon. Yet most lie defeated. Still, if I could bring them to bear, if only for a moment…
- A target (one of Salem's living Agents - Rene, Hazel or Coral) may be chosen for this Action; mark the preferred target in square brackets after the vote (for instance, [X] Resuscitate an Agent [Rene]). If no target is chosen, then Salem will choose to target whoever she feels is the best to back her up against this threat.
- If making this vote, an approach may be written in as a subvote of no more than 25 words. If not, Salem will choose an approach she feels best fits what injuries are visible and what can be done with her limited in-field options for healing.
- Roll Difficulty will be determined by chosen approach and target.
- Potential complications: Further injury, or being left open to attack by Summer or Raven.
- This Action can be taken no more than thrice, once for each potential target (each of her living Agents).
[ ] Negotiate - Fine. Summer Rose has pressed a gun to the head of my plans. But all mortals of this new world want
something, don't they? Surely there is something I can grant them so they'll leave and
stop, right?
- Further information about this Action is obscured. However, taking it will reveal things about both Summer and Raven that make its success on later Turns higher.
- You cannot achieve this Destructively.
- Potential complications are unknown at this time.
[ ] Collapse the Cavern - There is, of course, a way to stop this. But it would remove the Pool from my grasp for a time, damage Evernight, kill my agents, and not even guarantee the deaths of my foes, ensuring they could return and try this again. Still, as a last resort…
- This Action immediately buries the entire area under several hundred feet of rubble as Salem collapses the supports holding the room up with magic.
- This does not count to the Action limit.
- Taking this will immediately end the Battle. All Agents will die. Evernight will be severely damaged, and access to the Pools of Grimm resource will be limited until it can be excavated.
- Summer and Raven may survive.
Turns without using 'A Desire for Pure Destruction' - 0/3
