NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carnifex" data-source="post: 670336" data-attributes="member: 227">Suddenly, amidst the pulse of Sebastion's hearbeat - I have a heartbeat... - and the clash of blades, claws, flesh and spiralling, fizzing magics, there was silence.It lasted for barely a moment until the wizard's corpse struck the floor with a resounding, reassuring thud, the hilt of Sebastion's axe rising from his chest like an obscene victory banner.Relieved that the mage was dead, Burl looked for more targets. Seeing none, he started counting his companions all of whom he could see. Relieved that they were all alive, he started to sigh his relief when the thought struck him,  Ebri.Yelling, “Ebri. Has anyone seen Ebri?”Realizing there could only be one place she could be, Burl began to look for some way to get into the room above. The dead would have to wait as long as there was a chance for Ebri to still be alive.A wealth of thoughts assailed Sebastion about what had happened, and he found himself gathering the sheathes to his sword without thinking, going through the motions of cleaning the blade on automatic as he tried to cope with the emotions.When Burl asked his question, and started looking towards the doorway above his head, he finally had something to focus on, and with quick look at the climb he turned to Kale."Can you make that if I give you a boost?" he asked, bending his knees slightly and holding his hands ready as a stirrup. Kale turned to the sound of Sebastion's voice. He was already in position and poised underneath the smoking doorway. "Right."  Kale siad simply, thankful for the tap back to reality. Quickly, he sucked in air as he took his first step, the fog of war fading enough to take hold of just how badly he'd been burned. Sebastion stood at the base of the doorway, Cancer's crumpled body mere feet away. Sparing only moments to jostle the mage's head with his boot, Kale accepted Seb's boost and pulled himself into the room, mantling quickly and silently with pistol in hand.No immediate threats presented themselves, and Kale looked sheepishly down at Seb as he manuvered the other man's weapon. I thought he was dead... he thought simply, then cut short as his gaze settled on a dark-wrapped heap in the corner. A few seconds passed, then Kale stepped back to the doorway. "Bring Wyshira up," he said, in a completely neutral voice.Smoke lay heavy and still in the foul mage's study, the sights and smells a cloying scene of destruction. Books and papers filled the room, but what normally would have been Kale's first interest would have to be neglected. Walking reluctantly to where Ebri lay, he unsettled her in her expanding pool of blood. Touching her gently, the blood under his hands was still warm- either the shadow of a passed life, or a meager hope for one to continue. Applying pressure gently to the mangled places, he provided, he suposed, just one respectful plattitude for a woman whose spirit was already bound for the afterlife.Whatever that means, Kale wondered cynically, and the only thing he could feel for sure was a profound sense of loss. Mel found she was shaking violently with the adrenaline let-down. When Kale lowered his table and gave her the most out-of-place smile possible--it was weirder in this room filled with ozone and greasy hellspawn smoke than her skin tone was--it occurred to her there had once been chairs; finding them scattered she chose instead a crate and lowered herself onto it, trying to keep her panting from turning to sobs.The last two times she'd been gutted like a big blue fish, but somehow this was worse.Burl mentioned Ebri, and for a moment Mel thought of going in search of her but her legs felt like rubber and anyway, as she murmured with a slightly shrill giggle, "Probably snuck off for soup."Finally she remembered the fire serpent. It coiled on the floor over by where Sebastion was boosting Kale. She found her balance and went over closer to it, feeling the waves of heat off its white-hot flaming body. A wonder the wood of the furniture had not caught fire around it. Pierre wanted her to tell it to shoo. But Mel had a new pet, and its uses were not yet spent. She gestured toward the door where the dragon-men had come from. "Let's have an explore. You go first," she told the thing, one hand on the wand in her pocket as if she could use it to beat the serpent to sparks if it made a funny move.Wyshira expected to be needed upstairs and so wasn't surprised when Kale called for her. The trouble was, she just couldn't make her feet walk any nearer to the Fire Serpent. She stared at it dumbly, eyes wide, and tried to summon up a calming image of a subterranean pool. But it was no good.DM's Note: Wyshira, as a water genasi, isn't too keen on fiery things...Melisande spoke to the thing then, some kind of command, and began to move in Wyshira's direction."Stop!" the priestess shouted, in spite of herself. She looked around nervously, embarassed by her outburst. "I uh..." She licked her dry lips and looked over at Mel, green eyes pleading. "Could you just ..... make it go away now?"* * *Ebri floated in non-existence, surrounded by the insistent chattering of dead relatives and spirit-kin. Whether it was really them or just hallucinatory images brought on by being near to death the woman did not know...Ebri felt herself pleasantly divorced from her body. She did not mind, she found. This was, after all, what enlightenment was supposed to be like. The distractions of the body no longer mattered. The mind was freed. One became pure energy, unfettered...Oh, it will be so good to have someone new to talk to-- the voice, which she had reluctantly identified as her mother's great aunt, chattered on, interrupting. Do you know, the new Zol, she just sits there and won't even talk? She can't even hear us when they get her stinking drunk, which is practically half the time. The other times, she's so scared to say anything she just sits there like she's in some catatonic trance-- Too bad you had your little crisis and ran off, Ebri... even when you just made stuff up, you were still giving decent advice. Usually it wasn't too far off what we were yelling at you-- Just think--I am freed from thinking. Ebri countered. You are illusory, Great Aunt. And I no longer care for the superstitious fantasies of the clan, in any case. I am beyond that--Just think--soon you'll be shouting at her too, on the other side. Isn't it funny how things work out? The irony-- Maybe you'll do better than us--I serve the higher Purpose--Oh, whatever, everyone is in denial until they get here. You'll see soon enough--I will not-- Ebri insisted, and wondered how much longer it would take, the dying of her body.Somehow, the prospect of eternal blissful peace with the cacophany of relatives continually interrupting was not optimistic.Perhaps she was serving the Purpose in dying now; she could not know the Prophet's ends. The Plan was mysterious and ineffable. But she had been give an assignment, which was not complete. Perhaps the ward is also dead...?That thought was unacceptable, suddenly, and she did pray now, when she had disdained it before. This was the more appropriate time, after all: action was impossible. Great Prophet, behold your servant. My only wish has been to serve your ends. Do with me now as you will, whether it be to cease existence, or to continue refining this spirit in flesh and fulfilling your Purpose...* * *Mel only paused a second at Wyshira's outburst. The priestess was clearly on edge with post-battle nerves, and Mel could relate. It did not occur to her she could possibly be serious about dispelling the fire-serpent. The fire-serpent was nifty. And it could come in very handy should more cowardly followers of Gilamesh be crouching in the corners of the passageway beyond."Don't worry, it's tame," she reassured Wyshira with a smile, and continued straight on toward the priestess and the passage. "We're just going to have a look around." Wyshira edged away from the sorceress and the fiery serpent, careful not to pesent her back to them, and made her way toward the group gathered beneath the upstairs doorway. It's tame.... it's tame..... it's tame..... she repeated like a mantra in her head, latching on to the words and taking strength from them. By the time she got to Sebastian, she was clammy and shaking. She breathed a small sigh of relief when Melisande and her "pet" disappeared into the passageway."All right," she said to the mercenary waiting to help her up. "I'm ready."</blockquote>

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