As the Hammer Falls
Twenty-Fifth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
You do not have much time to improvise a speech, thankfully you do not have to. Gold clinks as your cloak whirls, disgorging a podium to stand upon. Behind you flutters the sky blue and silver banner of Sultan Zafer on your left, the standard of the Opal Throne like an ever-shifting flame upon the wind to your right, and between them the three-headed dragon under which Aegon marched to war, carried now into a war beyond the boundaries of the world. Soon it would be carried in spirit, if not in form, back to Valyria the Fallen.
"Greetings to my allies. I apologize for the hurried call to arms and the haphazard manner in which this address begins, but the necessities of the day are the enemies of ideal circumstance, just as perfection is the enemy of 'good enough'," you begin, your jest not met with any laughs, though you catch the odd smile upon the faces of those arrayed row upon row upon the shore.
"It gives my heart great joy to see so many standing ready to defend a place most of you had never heard about until so very recently, let alone seen with your own eyes. Let this be a statement to the Brass Bastard and his servants. There are no gaps in our armor, no weakness to exploit, from the crystalline dome of the Opaline Vault to the singing spires of Armun Kelisk, from the ever burning waves of the Sea of Fire to the gentle meadows of the Plane of Balance, where the Sultan and his creatures seek to gain a hold, there we will stand, steadfast as the rock beneath our feet, swift as the air above us, fierce as the fire in our hearts."
This time they do speak, they cheer even as your
magic takes hold, making swords lighter in the hand, spears swifter, and axes strike with greater weight. None cheer louder than the azer, most likely former slaves or kin of such glad to hear a praise to fire given.
"Above all else, we stand together," you proclaim as the cheers die down. "That is why we will win this war, for who has the Sultan to call upon but tormented slaves and servants who hate him? Will the hosts of Baator march to his aid on his hour of need? No, he stands alone, and in this he has sown the seeds of his own demise. Let us show him and all his hosts what made the City of Gold great, not the might of its rulers, but the unity of its people."
For the merest instant you hesitate, wondering how much to say of Valyria and its legacy, of power and decadence both. In the end the words come easily to your lips, for if your greatest enemies already know what purpose to keep secrets from your allies? "The enemy's purpose this day is to turn the legacy of my ancestors to foul ends, for the madness that Iblis' line could work with even the splinters of Valyria's grandest artifice could shake the very Spheres of Form and Being. This will not come to pass, not today, his forces move through the ruins of my ancestor's homeland like thieves in the night, but they will learn that Valyria's legacy is not a corpse to be picked over by scavengers as Iblis took the greatness of the City of Gold for himself. That no matter how grand his plans or how petty his ambitions we will be there to stop them. The spheres are no longer his playground, and in time he will learn to be afraid."
Again they cheer, feet stamping in unison like the echo of an earthquake building in the deep and so at last you conclude, with passion and with truth: "I know you all walk with surety and purpose, knowing well of the danger we all move toward even now. Our foe is a mighty beast that has grown fat with cruelty and by stealing the works of its betters. Let this be one among many blows to sting and scourge the lofty pride of our foes, let us bring down this beast one sting at a time."
***
For a beginning you must leave the shaitan ships behind and fly
unseen above the wastes besides your friends, your vassals, and allies. Ash lashes at you and lightning tinted green dances across the the burning sky. The storm the fiend had seen grows close, though thankfully you are able to outpace it.
As the ships grow closer on the horizon the group begins to fan out. Vee, Rina, Teana, Wyla, Lady Saenena and her dragon, Korzion, Amrelath, Relath, and Yrael together with the Erinyes are to provide support to the wyverns and the frigates attacking the trailing five ships while you, Ser Richard, Dany, Xor, Siduri, Lya, Malarys, Zherys, Melisandre, and Yrten while seek out and slay the mage and the archfiend as Balerion harries the upper deck.
Does he still know these skies, you wonder
, does he in distant corner of a stunted mind understand what the land of his birth had become?
"Now!" you roar, the word passing into a sound of
sorcery and rage that flings dozens of the enemy crew from their feet, some of them hurled clean over the side.
Beside you Lya's voice is unheard, but her magic not unfelt, a
wall of shimmering power springs up between the lead ship and the next in line. Alas, the sturdy vessel does not suffer over much from striking the barrier. The same cannot be said for the crew as dozens of
shadow-spun tentacles spring up upon the deck.
At your command Balerion descends, his breath an inferno, but the weapons upon the deck are still unbroken. They move guided by sorcery alone to take aim at the dragon, the glyphs upon its steel arches flaring into being.
Three bolts glance off the dragon's scales but one other stings into the flesh at the base of the beast's wing and a second one shatters one of his horns.
Balerion takes 47 Damage
Dany hesitates a moment, thinking to heal the dragon, but just as you do she knows time is short of find the fiend. The two of you dive for the window of the cabin through which you saw the archfiend, Ser Richard, Xor, and Siduri beneath your wings. Alas, the cabin is empty save for its luxurious furnishings. Glass shatters at your touch.
"Mercy, mercy!" a collared ifrit calls from underneath a divan.
"There is something odd about that one," Dany whispers in your mind.
You start... all you see is a scantily dressed slave, yet that does not mean that is all it is even beneath the spell mean to pierce all glamours, you know of a veil than can defeat it, you have used
it.
What do you do?
[] Play along, try to lull the potential enemy into a false sense of security
-[] Write in
[] Attack
-[] Write in
[] Write in
OOC: Dany can't say for certain if this is the Asurendra, but it did beat Viserys' sense motive and he has a +38 to the roll.
