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<blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 31410" data-attributes="member: 63"><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Chapter Fourteen: Revelation</strong></span></p><p></p><p>A handful of Goblins sit leering at the party on various steps, and two tall humanoids, also green-skinned, stand at the top of the flight of stairs. Between them, smiling at them from an armchair as though from a throne, sits the puppet master, Dalavar Kineil. He smiles confidently down at Cai and Tagin, both of whom stand like zombies at the base of the staircase. With a thought, Dalavar releases them from his grip, and Tagin immediately bursts into shouting.</p><p></p><p>“Neil? Dammit, I told you to lay off or I was gonna show you not to mess with me.”</p><p></p><p>Dalavar blows air through his lips, flubbering them in mockery. “Oh shut up. You’re lucky that I even let you live, you puny man.”</p><p></p><p>Madeline glances around in confusion. “Wait. This guy’s Legion?”</p><p></p><p>Dalavar sneers at her. “Hardly, miss. I am not he, the son of man, who shall lead the war even after his death. No, the true warriors are here, those who will fight in the apocalypse, but they must choose whether to fight for the Son of Man, or for the Dragon.”</p><p></p><p>The two bodyguards flanking the half-Elf telepath—a lean, muscular half-Orc woman with shoulder pistol holsters; and a sturdy, stern male Orc fingering a steel great-axe—tense as if ready for battle. Dalavar gently gestures to keep the warriors from attacking, then continues.</p><p></p><p>“But hey, where are my manners? Please forgive the poor reception, but I’ve been lacking in amenities ever since I came back home. I’d been hoping that you’d come to me, though. There is a war brewing, and every man or woman makes our little brotherhood stronger.”</p><p></p><p>Madeline lucidly expresses the party’s thoughts: “Huh?”</p><p></p><p>Dalavar frowns, then tries to explain himself, a mad zeal in his eyes. “The Son of Man, Legion, will battle the Dragon and all the natural magi. Elves, trolls, Dragons, Illithids. And sirens. They can’t hide their true natures forever like the Bureau wants them to, and the Son and his angels know this. It’s exactly like the siren said. We can’t hide in the shadows forever, me or you. Ever since I was born, the Bureau tried to monitor everything I did, and they’ll do the same to you. You’re not true magi, but the Son doesn’t care. He’ll destroy you too.</p><p></p><p>“But then there’s also the Dragon of the apocalypse. It may kill billions of you humans, but it’s been the Bureau trying to protect you rodents that <em>made</em> Legion! It was their attempt to make us all play nice and act like humans that will have caused this war!”</p><p></p><p>Tagin sighs, muttering that compared to Dalavar, the siren in Hong Kong seemed positively sane.</p><p></p><p>Jenny shakes her head at what Dalavar’s saying, finding it laughable that Legion is the second coming, and that he has it out for sirens and Dragons. Cai’s just pissed that he was mind controlled, while Balthazaar is sizing up the opposition. The Orc and half-Orc look like Knights, plus Dalavar and about a score of Goblins. Madeline, a big one for magic and voodoo, seems most likely to agree with the half-Elf telepath.</p><p></p><p>Finagle, though, is still confused and grief stricken over the murder of his friend, Brian Greenman. He shouts at Dalavar, “You killed Brian! You’re working with Autumn, you murderer!”</p><p></p><p>Dalavar’s taken aback, shocked that Brian is dead. He quickly regains his composure, though, and replies that he’s not actually working with the Whore of Babylon (apparently no one likes Autumn anymore) or with Legion. Dalavar hopes to be able to ally with the Dragon. </p><p></p><p>He extends a hand to the party, palm up and fingers open in an offer. “Join with me. You weren’t born magi, but you have power, and we can protect each other.”</p><p></p><p>Tagin notices that Dalavar seems to be ignoring him. “Dalavar, you’re crazier than the siren. It’s not like we’d join with the ‘Dragon’ or Legion anyway, and you suck as a recruiter. Now if you just agree to help us out and not let things get too violent, we won’t have to cause any trouble.”</p><p></p><p>Dalavar grimaces. “Tagin, I’m sorry. You can’t use magic, and you certainly aren’t a wall of muscle,” he grins at the two beefy Knights flanking him, “and thus you’re not of any worth to me. It’s nothing personal.”</p><p></p><p>Jenny steps up next to Tagin. “Your threats mean nothing. Tagin speaks for all of us. We don’t intend to work for either Legion or whoever this ‘Dragon’ is.”</p><p></p><p>Dalavar narrows his eyes. “The Bureau wants to kill you. The Son of Man will kill you if you get in his way. And now, you’ve angered <em>me</em>.”</p><p></p><p>The Goblins begin bounding down the stairs, drawing daggers and clubs with murderous glee. The Orc beside Dalavar hefts his great-axe and charges, and Dalavar hands the half-Orc woman the hilt of an arcane blade, which she ignites into a white katana.</p><p></p><p>Dalavar shrugs apologetically to the party. “I’m sorry it had to be this way.”</p><p></p><p>The charging Goblins and Orcs ignore Tagin and run around him since he’s only a minor threat. Used to being overlooked, but unwilling to let Neil ignore him this time, Tagin begins to methodically climb the steps, staring Dalavar in the eyes the whole time.</p><p></p><p>At Balthazaar’s signal, Cai fires off two blasts into the crowd of Goblins, taking out a half dozen of the buggers. The remaining ones pounce upon Balthazaar and nearly drag him to the ground as he begins hacking at them with a shortsword.</p><p></p><p>Finagle, still a little confused as to whether he oughta hate Neil or not, fires a compressed air tranq dart at the huge charging Orc. It catches the Orc in the shoulder, but he doesn’t slow down as he begins an all-out, raging barbarian charge toward the weakling wizard.</p><p></p><p>Jenny and Madeline are about to go to Finagle’s aid when a door on the side of the entry hall swings open, and two figures step out. The first, a Dark Elf sorceress clad in spiderwebs, levitates forward, shadowy magic surrounding her in a dark miasma. The second figure is ghoulishly pale, holding a gleaming emerald lightblade scythe. Jenny and Madeline gasp when they first see the familiar face of Iscalio, and Jenny almost gives a sigh of relief, but then the albino Druid leaps forward and lashes out with his scythe, slashing Jenny across the arm as she tries to parry.</p><p></p><p>From the top of the steps, Dalavar bursts into laughter as his puppets attack. The telepath is about to shout more commands when he notices Tagin slowly climbing the steps toward him. Dalavar frowns at the hacker, who seems to be taking his time.</p><p></p><p>Finagle is left to defend himself from the Orc barbarian as Jenny and Madeline square off against Iscalio and the dark Elf. Balthazaar struggles with the Goblins, and Cai draws his katana in defense as the half-Orc woman leaps off the stairs at him in a flying slice.</p><p></p><p>Tagin continues to climb the stairs, unnerving Dalavar with his steady, piercing stare.</p><p></p><p>Balthazaar struggles to fling the grappling Goblins off, but despite the distractions he drops his guard and draws a wooden stake from his trenchcoat. As the raging Orc barbarian raises his axe to cleave Finagle in two, Balthazaar the vampire hunter hurls the wooden stake ten feet into the Orc’s hand, forcing him to lose his grip on the weapon temporarily (point-blank shot, precise shot, and ranged disarm; hee hee). With the moment of safety, Finagle fires another dart into the Orc’s face, catching the huge green-skinned grunt in his nose with a dose full of horse tranquilizer. </p><p></p><p>Cai meets the leaping attack of the half-Orc woman, but he’s quickly driven back by her deft attacks. Her eyes are wide and filled with fury, and she slashes faster and stronger than he’d expect from the way she looks. She gets in a firm hit, seriously wounding Cai, and even though he sees his brother across the room being mind-controlled, Cai decides to draw the half-Orc woman away from the bulk of the fight where he won’t have to worry about Goblins. Cai runs down the hallway that leads under the grand staircase, and the woman gives chase.</p><p></p><p>Madeline fires a pair of magic missile at the Dark Elf shadow mage, but the Drow totally ignores the attack. She points at Madeline’s feet, and the woman’s shadow leaps up to attack her, clawing at her arms. Meanwhile, Jenny tries to disarm Iscalio without harming him, but Iscalio doesn’t seem to appreciate her effort, and he continues to fight as per Dalavar’s last orders.</p><p></p><p>Attacks of opportunity save the day for Balthazaar as he slowly begins smashing the Goblins against walls, or staking them whenever he’s able to get ahold of one of his unending supply of the wooden shafts. The pool of Goblins tackling him begins to dwindle, but he’s been severely drained by their assault, and is too weak to follow as the remaining Goblins leap off after Finagle, who is easier prey. </p><p></p><p>And speaking of Finagle, the Orc recovers his grip on his weapon, and chops at the scrawny teenage wizard. Finagle narrowly avoids losing an arm, and he fires another dart at the Orc, who just seeths with more berserker rage. The Orc doesn’t even seem to feel the wooden stake impaling his hand.</p><p></p><p>Away from the bulk of the melee, Cai battles the half-Orc in a narrow hallway. Her glowing katana tears through the wooden walls with ease, making the narrowness of the hallway barely a drawback. Cai takes several small hits, but only barely starts to wound the woman. </p><p></p><p>Tagin is now less than five feet from Dalavar Kineil. The hacker stands with his hands at his sides, stopping within spitting distance of Neil. Dalavar hesitates, waiting for Tagin to make a move. The nervousness keeps him for splitting his attention elsewhere.</p><p></p><p>The shadow attacking Madeline hurts her so much that she begins to scream for help, and Finagle answers her call, turning away from the Orc long enough to cast Invisibility on the woman. With no shadow anymore, she’s safe, but Finagle gets kicked in the knee by the Orc for lowering his guard (plus stabbed and clubbed by a handful of Goblins).</p><p></p><p>Madeline recovers after a moment, and since she can’t hurt the Drow with her magic, she fires magic missiles at two of the Goblins attacking Finagle, knocking them unconscious. Madeline becomes visible again, but her shadow is no longer trying to kill her. The Dark Elven shadow mage weaves her hands in the air and conjures a blade of shadows, which she brandishes toward Madeline.</p><p></p><p>Jenny finally relents and simply stabs at Iscalio, aiming for the man’s leg to take him out of the fight, but not kill him. Iscalio grimaces at the wound, but it doesn’t stop him from slashing his lightblade scythe across Jenny’s forearm. Jenny refuses to fall back, though, and instead presses forward, driving Iscalio back as they both move closer to the Dark Elf and Madeline.</p><p></p><p>Balthazaar staggers forward to rescue Finagle, and the scrawny mage runs away from the melee, taking another potshot at the Orc with his tranq gun. The third dart catches the Orc in the thigh, but again he seems unfazed. The Orc pulls a hand-axe from a hip-holster and hurls it across the room at the fleeing Finagle, catching him with the haft in his legs and nearly tripping him. Balthazaar doesn’t actually hit the Orc, since all the Goblins are harrassing him, but a few seconds after Finagle leaves the Orc’s field of view, the huge berserker seems to shrink, his rage slacking off. Before the Orc even actually gets properly wounded, he passes out and hits the floor like a rock from all the tranquilizer in his veins.</p><p></p><p>Cai throws his sword into the half-Orc woman’s face to distract her while he whips out his sawed-off double-barrel twelve-gauge shotgun. He cocks it and squeezes the trigger. Just as the gun fires, the half-Orc smacks down with the flat of her blade onto the shotgun’s barrel, deflecting the blast away from her torso. Instead, she gets shot by a blast of pellets in her leg. The injury enrages the woman more, and she slashes again at the gun, cutting cleanly through it. Cai drops the gun in dismay, and the woman spits blood on it in contempt. “Fight like a man!” she shouts.</p><p></p><p>Madeline ducks a slash from the Dark Elf’s shadow scimitar, but the Drow attacks with an off-hand dagger Madeline hadn’t even seen. The dagger digs into her hip, and Madeline loses her concentration and can’t finish her own spell. She desperately tries to reach for her taser.</p><p></p><p>Jenny has forced Iscalio back to within a few feet of the Drow. The paladin bats aside Iscalio’s weapon for an instant, then charges in, knocking him back and into the Dark Elf. All three of them fall to the floor in a heap, but Jenny shoves herself back to her feet as Iscalio does one of those nifty prone-flip-to-your-feet jumps you see in Hong Kong films.</p><p></p><p>Dalavar, weakened from having mentally dominated several people at once, can only mount a minor attack on Tagin. A mental hand reaches out to paralyze Tagin’s brain, and Tagin squints to try to fight it off. He’s about to lose, when he feels something bolster him, and he shakes off the telepathic attack.</p><p></p><p>“You never could do anything right, Neil,” Tagin laughs at him. Then he raises his voice and shouts down to the battle below. “JENNY, GIVE ME YOUR SWORD!”</p><p></p><p>(Tagin had been observing and studying Dalavar all the time he’d been climbing the stairs, looking for some kind of defense or weakness, wanting to be extra careful around a telepath. Then he remembered how the Illithid had telekinetically blocked the bullets, but hadn’t been immune to melee attacks. Tagin decided he needed a sword, and he remembered that Jenny just happened to have one, that she never actually used.)</p><p></p><p>Dalavar frowns at Tagin in confusion, but below in the fight, Jenny hears Tagin’s call. As Iscalio leaps forward to slash at her, the paladin pulls the hilt of her sword out and flings it through the air, almost over Tagin’s head. But Tagin leaps up and snaches it out of the air, twirls, and activates the blade while drawing his pistol with his free hand. As he finishes his twirl, he prepares to slash at Dalavar.</p><p></p><p>Then he sees the sword he’s holding. It’s a slender, elegant rapier.</p><p></p><p>Tagin stops and stands up straight, looking at the effeminate curls of the hilt and narrow blade of the sword in his hand. He sighs in disbelief, tosses the sword over his shoulder, and nonchalantly blasts three bullets at Dalavar. The bullets bounce off Dalavar’s shield, and Tagin begins to mutter under his breath in disgust at Jenny for having such a stupid wimpy sword, ruining his moment of glory.</p><p></p><p>An attack of opportunity from Jenny cuts down a Goblin, and Balthazaar’s hurled stakes drop two more before the little buggers can pounce upon a wounded Madeline. Madeline, for her credit, ignores the burning in her hip from the dagger wound and leaps at the Drow with her taser. Madeline and the Dark Elf sorceress struggle on the ground, Madeline trying to tase her, and the Drow trying to stab Madeline in the throat.</p><p></p><p>Jenny, having opened herself up by throwing her sword to Tagin, takes a slash across the chest from Iscalio’s scythe. Doubling over in pain, Jenny falls backward onto the floor, struggling to concentrate to heal the hideous wound on her chest.</p><p></p><p>In the hallway, the half-Orc woman begins to slow down, her rage ending. She still has more than enough strength to crush Cai, though, since Cai’s gun is demolished, and he had desperately tossed away his own katana the round before. The woman draws back her lightblade katana to kill Cai when a ‘thoosh’ fills the air, and something digs into her shoulder. She glances back for a moment to see the feathered tail of a tranq dart sticking out of her back. She turns and grimaces at her ambusher, Finagle, who is slumped against the hallway wall a few dozen feet away.</p><p></p><p>The half-Orc begins to slump slightly, but she doesn’t go down. Instead, she drops her sword and pulls a pair of pistols from her shoulder holsters. As her knees begin to buckle, she fires off a half-dozen bullets at Finagle. Magically, only one hits him. Even more magically (evil DM vengeance magic, to be precise), four of the bullets rip his auto-site tranquilizing air rifle to bits, scattering shrapnel across the hallway. Jessie always hated that damned thing. Gyroscopic rifle with exploding darts my ass.</p><p></p><p>Um, anyway, Cai steps up behind her, grabs her shoulder to yank her around, then slams his fist into her face, knocking the woman unconscious onto the floor. Once the threat is over, Cai nods in thanks to the normally annoying and whiny Finagle.</p><p></p><p>Back in the main room, Balthazaar keeps the Goblins busy so they can’t harrass the other party members. It’s about 4 to 1 against Balthazaar, but a few seconds later, it’s 1 to 1.</p><p></p><p>Iscalio holds his scythe over Jenny threateningly, but instead of slashing her while she’s down, he concentrates, and suddenly the wooden boards beneath her warp and reach up to entangle her (wooden boards, plus vines and weeds under the house). As Jenny struggles in the grip of the entangle spell, she shouts to her ghost, “Pataman, kick that stupid fox of his!”</p><p></p><p>Pataman does just that, and the one spirit slaps some sense into Iscalio’s bonded spirit, stunning Iscalio for a few seconds. Long enough for Jenny to rip free and swing the haft of her spear into Iscalio’s legs, knocking the man off his feet.</p><p></p><p>The Drow stabs Madeline again, this time in the shoulder, and in desperation the human sorceress grabs at the Dark Elf’s long braid and yanks her around briefly. With the braid in her hand, Madeline has better leverage, and she thrusts her taser into the Dark Elf’s cheek, stunning the Drow silly, but not dropping her.</p><p></p><p>Atop the stairs, Tagin reels in pain as a mental stab fills his mind with pain. Dropping the gun, Tagin draws his switchblade and leaps forward, trying to circle around the telepath. Dalavar slumps against the railing of the stairs, and then suddenly Tagin’s vision changes. After a moment of disorientation, Dalavar is suddenly gone from his sight. Tagin gets a feeling he’s being tricked, though, and he stabs out, feeling his attack connect. Dalavar screams, and Tagin is able to shake off the false visual image Dalavar had tried to implant in his mind. </p><p></p><p>And he sees that Dalavar is holding a pistol at his face. Dalavar is no longer in any condition able to maintain the mental illusion, and Tagin realizes that all his shots hit home, that the telekinetic barrier had been an illusion too.</p><p></p><p>Cai and Finagle hobble back into the room, and Cai tries to run to his brother. Finagle shoots an electric arrow at one Goblin that Balthazaar is fighting, and the jolt knocks the little green guy unconscious. Jenny is slowly pushing herself to her feet, trying to get to Madeline. Iscalio grabs her arm though, and as the druid draws back his scythe, Jenny slaps him in the face, trying to shake him out of it. Iscalio calls her a bitchy whore and knees her in between the legs, which does hurt Jenny, but not as much as Iscalio had probably hoped. Jenny shoves Iscalio backward into a wall and snaps her spear up to press the tip to his throat.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, during this exchange Madeline has been having to fend to herself. The Drow stabs Madeline again and kicks away, slashing off her own braid so Madeline can’t keep yanking her hair. As Madeline lays sprawled on the floor, her limbs going rigid from the venom on the dark Elf’s dagger, the dark Elf shadowmage casts darkness on the area around her, creating a blackness so deep even the glowing emerald of Iscalio’s lighscythe is hidden by it. Balthazaar leaps into this darkness to try to stop the woman, but armed with a scimitar of shadows and a poisoned dagger, the Drow sorceress is only slightly concerned at the new attacker.</p><p></p><p>Cai comes up and also covers his brother, holding his katana to his brother’s throat. Finagle just leans against the wall, too injured to be much of a help anymore.</p><p></p><p>Jenny turns to run help Tagin, and thus sees the exchange at the top of the stairs.</p><p></p><p>Tagin lowers his switchblade, staring down the barrel of a pistol to Neil, who has been grazed by three bullets and stabbed in the belly with a knife. Tagin narrows his eyes, standing up to the telepath. “You won’t shoot. You’re too much of a weakling.”</p><p></p><p>Neil is breathing heavily. “You don’t see, do you? If I’m such a weakling, how can I see into your mind, see your memories, know who Legion is? <em>You</em> are the weakling. <em>I</em> see! The war is coming, and after it, none of our sins will matter.”</p><p></p><p>Tagin leaps forward and shoves the gun upward just as Dalavar fires. He shoves the telepath sideways and off-balance, knocking him backward and to the edge of the top of the stairs. Tagin scrambles and grabs onto the bannister of the stairs, but Dalavar loses his balance and falls down the steps, rolling and bouncing. He hits the floor with a room-filling ‘snap.’</p><p></p><p>After a moment of shock, Tagin and Jenny rush to Dalavar’s side. Iscalio suddenly snaps out of the mind control, and he slumps forward into the arms of his brother.</p><p></p><p>Jenny and Tagin kneel beside Dalavar. He’s still alive, barely, but Jenny can tell that the man’s neck is broken, and even with her healing, he would still die from the gunshot wounds.</p><p></p><p>Tagin bends close to Dalavar’s face, looking the dying man in his eyes. “Neil! I’m sorry. I didn’t-. . . .”</p><p></p><p>Dalavar’s face spasms, and he stares off into space blankly as he quietly whispers. “You- . . . you saw him . . . at the gates of heaven. The Son of Man . . . and . . . his Archangel.”</p><p></p><p>Tagin’s head falls upon Dalavar’s chest. He can’t think of anything to say, and after a few moments he moves away and sits blankly by the foot of the stairs. Jenny closes Dalavar’s lifeless eyes, then stands and looks around.</p><p></p><p>The battle is over. With Dalavar gone, the few Goblins who are disabled and not dead crawl away in fear, and everyone else comes free of his domination. In the eventual aftermath, they learn that the Orc, the half-Orc, and the Drow were all knights, and had been dominated by Dalavar while looking for the party. Iscalio tells them his story too, about how he ended up in New Orleans looking for clues about Dalavar, and made the mistake of actually finding the guy.</p><p></p><p>Iscalio grudgingly apologizes for nearly killing Jenny (a scythe deals a LOT of damage on a critical), then tells them what they already know. Autumn is controlling the Chief, and that she’s for some reason working with Legion.</p><p></p><p>The three knights the party rescued agree that the Chief must be mistaken, and they promise to keep the party’s location a secret. The half-Orc woman gives Cai the lightblade she had used, since it wasn’t hers in the first place. In fact, this old house was once a base for the knights, and there’s a small cache of old supplies and equipment in the attic. Among the items they find are two vitally important magical devices—universal keys, able to open any gate anywhere, either between the real world and the faerie world, or between two points on the real world. There’s also a small pile of other loot, which I’ll detail in my next post. </p><p></p><p>But the question is, where now? They have the keys, and can go wherever they want, but where? Iscalio’s heading to England for some unfinished business, but he doesn’t want them following him. The other knights are heading back to the Bureau to try to talk some sense into their co-workers, and to find a way to stop Autumn.</p><p></p><p>The party sits down and thinks, trying to figure out what Dalavar was trying to say in his last moments. And then they realize who Legion is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 31410, member: 63"] [size=3][b]Chapter Fourteen: Revelation[/b][/size] A handful of Goblins sit leering at the party on various steps, and two tall humanoids, also green-skinned, stand at the top of the flight of stairs. Between them, smiling at them from an armchair as though from a throne, sits the puppet master, Dalavar Kineil. He smiles confidently down at Cai and Tagin, both of whom stand like zombies at the base of the staircase. With a thought, Dalavar releases them from his grip, and Tagin immediately bursts into shouting. “Neil? Dammit, I told you to lay off or I was gonna show you not to mess with me.” Dalavar blows air through his lips, flubbering them in mockery. “Oh shut up. You’re lucky that I even let you live, you puny man.” Madeline glances around in confusion. “Wait. This guy’s Legion?” Dalavar sneers at her. “Hardly, miss. I am not he, the son of man, who shall lead the war even after his death. No, the true warriors are here, those who will fight in the apocalypse, but they must choose whether to fight for the Son of Man, or for the Dragon.” The two bodyguards flanking the half-Elf telepath—a lean, muscular half-Orc woman with shoulder pistol holsters; and a sturdy, stern male Orc fingering a steel great-axe—tense as if ready for battle. Dalavar gently gestures to keep the warriors from attacking, then continues. “But hey, where are my manners? Please forgive the poor reception, but I’ve been lacking in amenities ever since I came back home. I’d been hoping that you’d come to me, though. There is a war brewing, and every man or woman makes our little brotherhood stronger.” Madeline lucidly expresses the party’s thoughts: “Huh?” Dalavar frowns, then tries to explain himself, a mad zeal in his eyes. “The Son of Man, Legion, will battle the Dragon and all the natural magi. Elves, trolls, Dragons, Illithids. And sirens. They can’t hide their true natures forever like the Bureau wants them to, and the Son and his angels know this. It’s exactly like the siren said. We can’t hide in the shadows forever, me or you. Ever since I was born, the Bureau tried to monitor everything I did, and they’ll do the same to you. You’re not true magi, but the Son doesn’t care. He’ll destroy you too. “But then there’s also the Dragon of the apocalypse. It may kill billions of you humans, but it’s been the Bureau trying to protect you rodents that [I]made[/I] Legion! It was their attempt to make us all play nice and act like humans that will have caused this war!” Tagin sighs, muttering that compared to Dalavar, the siren in Hong Kong seemed positively sane. Jenny shakes her head at what Dalavar’s saying, finding it laughable that Legion is the second coming, and that he has it out for sirens and Dragons. Cai’s just pissed that he was mind controlled, while Balthazaar is sizing up the opposition. The Orc and half-Orc look like Knights, plus Dalavar and about a score of Goblins. Madeline, a big one for magic and voodoo, seems most likely to agree with the half-Elf telepath. Finagle, though, is still confused and grief stricken over the murder of his friend, Brian Greenman. He shouts at Dalavar, “You killed Brian! You’re working with Autumn, you murderer!” Dalavar’s taken aback, shocked that Brian is dead. He quickly regains his composure, though, and replies that he’s not actually working with the Whore of Babylon (apparently no one likes Autumn anymore) or with Legion. Dalavar hopes to be able to ally with the Dragon. He extends a hand to the party, palm up and fingers open in an offer. “Join with me. You weren’t born magi, but you have power, and we can protect each other.” Tagin notices that Dalavar seems to be ignoring him. “Dalavar, you’re crazier than the siren. It’s not like we’d join with the ‘Dragon’ or Legion anyway, and you suck as a recruiter. Now if you just agree to help us out and not let things get too violent, we won’t have to cause any trouble.” Dalavar grimaces. “Tagin, I’m sorry. You can’t use magic, and you certainly aren’t a wall of muscle,” he grins at the two beefy Knights flanking him, “and thus you’re not of any worth to me. It’s nothing personal.” Jenny steps up next to Tagin. “Your threats mean nothing. Tagin speaks for all of us. We don’t intend to work for either Legion or whoever this ‘Dragon’ is.” Dalavar narrows his eyes. “The Bureau wants to kill you. The Son of Man will kill you if you get in his way. And now, you’ve angered [I]me[/I].” The Goblins begin bounding down the stairs, drawing daggers and clubs with murderous glee. The Orc beside Dalavar hefts his great-axe and charges, and Dalavar hands the half-Orc woman the hilt of an arcane blade, which she ignites into a white katana. Dalavar shrugs apologetically to the party. “I’m sorry it had to be this way.” The charging Goblins and Orcs ignore Tagin and run around him since he’s only a minor threat. Used to being overlooked, but unwilling to let Neil ignore him this time, Tagin begins to methodically climb the steps, staring Dalavar in the eyes the whole time. At Balthazaar’s signal, Cai fires off two blasts into the crowd of Goblins, taking out a half dozen of the buggers. The remaining ones pounce upon Balthazaar and nearly drag him to the ground as he begins hacking at them with a shortsword. Finagle, still a little confused as to whether he oughta hate Neil or not, fires a compressed air tranq dart at the huge charging Orc. It catches the Orc in the shoulder, but he doesn’t slow down as he begins an all-out, raging barbarian charge toward the weakling wizard. Jenny and Madeline are about to go to Finagle’s aid when a door on the side of the entry hall swings open, and two figures step out. The first, a Dark Elf sorceress clad in spiderwebs, levitates forward, shadowy magic surrounding her in a dark miasma. The second figure is ghoulishly pale, holding a gleaming emerald lightblade scythe. Jenny and Madeline gasp when they first see the familiar face of Iscalio, and Jenny almost gives a sigh of relief, but then the albino Druid leaps forward and lashes out with his scythe, slashing Jenny across the arm as she tries to parry. From the top of the steps, Dalavar bursts into laughter as his puppets attack. The telepath is about to shout more commands when he notices Tagin slowly climbing the steps toward him. Dalavar frowns at the hacker, who seems to be taking his time. Finagle is left to defend himself from the Orc barbarian as Jenny and Madeline square off against Iscalio and the dark Elf. Balthazaar struggles with the Goblins, and Cai draws his katana in defense as the half-Orc woman leaps off the stairs at him in a flying slice. Tagin continues to climb the stairs, unnerving Dalavar with his steady, piercing stare. Balthazaar struggles to fling the grappling Goblins off, but despite the distractions he drops his guard and draws a wooden stake from his trenchcoat. As the raging Orc barbarian raises his axe to cleave Finagle in two, Balthazaar the vampire hunter hurls the wooden stake ten feet into the Orc’s hand, forcing him to lose his grip on the weapon temporarily (point-blank shot, precise shot, and ranged disarm; hee hee). With the moment of safety, Finagle fires another dart into the Orc’s face, catching the huge green-skinned grunt in his nose with a dose full of horse tranquilizer. Cai meets the leaping attack of the half-Orc woman, but he’s quickly driven back by her deft attacks. Her eyes are wide and filled with fury, and she slashes faster and stronger than he’d expect from the way she looks. She gets in a firm hit, seriously wounding Cai, and even though he sees his brother across the room being mind-controlled, Cai decides to draw the half-Orc woman away from the bulk of the fight where he won’t have to worry about Goblins. Cai runs down the hallway that leads under the grand staircase, and the woman gives chase. Madeline fires a pair of magic missile at the Dark Elf shadow mage, but the Drow totally ignores the attack. She points at Madeline’s feet, and the woman’s shadow leaps up to attack her, clawing at her arms. Meanwhile, Jenny tries to disarm Iscalio without harming him, but Iscalio doesn’t seem to appreciate her effort, and he continues to fight as per Dalavar’s last orders. Attacks of opportunity save the day for Balthazaar as he slowly begins smashing the Goblins against walls, or staking them whenever he’s able to get ahold of one of his unending supply of the wooden shafts. The pool of Goblins tackling him begins to dwindle, but he’s been severely drained by their assault, and is too weak to follow as the remaining Goblins leap off after Finagle, who is easier prey. And speaking of Finagle, the Orc recovers his grip on his weapon, and chops at the scrawny teenage wizard. Finagle narrowly avoids losing an arm, and he fires another dart at the Orc, who just seeths with more berserker rage. The Orc doesn’t even seem to feel the wooden stake impaling his hand. Away from the bulk of the melee, Cai battles the half-Orc in a narrow hallway. Her glowing katana tears through the wooden walls with ease, making the narrowness of the hallway barely a drawback. Cai takes several small hits, but only barely starts to wound the woman. Tagin is now less than five feet from Dalavar Kineil. The hacker stands with his hands at his sides, stopping within spitting distance of Neil. Dalavar hesitates, waiting for Tagin to make a move. The nervousness keeps him for splitting his attention elsewhere. The shadow attacking Madeline hurts her so much that she begins to scream for help, and Finagle answers her call, turning away from the Orc long enough to cast Invisibility on the woman. With no shadow anymore, she’s safe, but Finagle gets kicked in the knee by the Orc for lowering his guard (plus stabbed and clubbed by a handful of Goblins). Madeline recovers after a moment, and since she can’t hurt the Drow with her magic, she fires magic missiles at two of the Goblins attacking Finagle, knocking them unconscious. Madeline becomes visible again, but her shadow is no longer trying to kill her. The Dark Elven shadow mage weaves her hands in the air and conjures a blade of shadows, which she brandishes toward Madeline. Jenny finally relents and simply stabs at Iscalio, aiming for the man’s leg to take him out of the fight, but not kill him. Iscalio grimaces at the wound, but it doesn’t stop him from slashing his lightblade scythe across Jenny’s forearm. Jenny refuses to fall back, though, and instead presses forward, driving Iscalio back as they both move closer to the Dark Elf and Madeline. Balthazaar staggers forward to rescue Finagle, and the scrawny mage runs away from the melee, taking another potshot at the Orc with his tranq gun. The third dart catches the Orc in the thigh, but again he seems unfazed. The Orc pulls a hand-axe from a hip-holster and hurls it across the room at the fleeing Finagle, catching him with the haft in his legs and nearly tripping him. Balthazaar doesn’t actually hit the Orc, since all the Goblins are harrassing him, but a few seconds after Finagle leaves the Orc’s field of view, the huge berserker seems to shrink, his rage slacking off. Before the Orc even actually gets properly wounded, he passes out and hits the floor like a rock from all the tranquilizer in his veins. Cai throws his sword into the half-Orc woman’s face to distract her while he whips out his sawed-off double-barrel twelve-gauge shotgun. He cocks it and squeezes the trigger. Just as the gun fires, the half-Orc smacks down with the flat of her blade onto the shotgun’s barrel, deflecting the blast away from her torso. Instead, she gets shot by a blast of pellets in her leg. The injury enrages the woman more, and she slashes again at the gun, cutting cleanly through it. Cai drops the gun in dismay, and the woman spits blood on it in contempt. “Fight like a man!” she shouts. Madeline ducks a slash from the Dark Elf’s shadow scimitar, but the Drow attacks with an off-hand dagger Madeline hadn’t even seen. The dagger digs into her hip, and Madeline loses her concentration and can’t finish her own spell. She desperately tries to reach for her taser. Jenny has forced Iscalio back to within a few feet of the Drow. The paladin bats aside Iscalio’s weapon for an instant, then charges in, knocking him back and into the Dark Elf. All three of them fall to the floor in a heap, but Jenny shoves herself back to her feet as Iscalio does one of those nifty prone-flip-to-your-feet jumps you see in Hong Kong films. Dalavar, weakened from having mentally dominated several people at once, can only mount a minor attack on Tagin. A mental hand reaches out to paralyze Tagin’s brain, and Tagin squints to try to fight it off. He’s about to lose, when he feels something bolster him, and he shakes off the telepathic attack. “You never could do anything right, Neil,” Tagin laughs at him. Then he raises his voice and shouts down to the battle below. “JENNY, GIVE ME YOUR SWORD!” (Tagin had been observing and studying Dalavar all the time he’d been climbing the stairs, looking for some kind of defense or weakness, wanting to be extra careful around a telepath. Then he remembered how the Illithid had telekinetically blocked the bullets, but hadn’t been immune to melee attacks. Tagin decided he needed a sword, and he remembered that Jenny just happened to have one, that she never actually used.) Dalavar frowns at Tagin in confusion, but below in the fight, Jenny hears Tagin’s call. As Iscalio leaps forward to slash at her, the paladin pulls the hilt of her sword out and flings it through the air, almost over Tagin’s head. But Tagin leaps up and snaches it out of the air, twirls, and activates the blade while drawing his pistol with his free hand. As he finishes his twirl, he prepares to slash at Dalavar. Then he sees the sword he’s holding. It’s a slender, elegant rapier. Tagin stops and stands up straight, looking at the effeminate curls of the hilt and narrow blade of the sword in his hand. He sighs in disbelief, tosses the sword over his shoulder, and nonchalantly blasts three bullets at Dalavar. The bullets bounce off Dalavar’s shield, and Tagin begins to mutter under his breath in disgust at Jenny for having such a stupid wimpy sword, ruining his moment of glory. An attack of opportunity from Jenny cuts down a Goblin, and Balthazaar’s hurled stakes drop two more before the little buggers can pounce upon a wounded Madeline. Madeline, for her credit, ignores the burning in her hip from the dagger wound and leaps at the Drow with her taser. Madeline and the Dark Elf sorceress struggle on the ground, Madeline trying to tase her, and the Drow trying to stab Madeline in the throat. Jenny, having opened herself up by throwing her sword to Tagin, takes a slash across the chest from Iscalio’s scythe. Doubling over in pain, Jenny falls backward onto the floor, struggling to concentrate to heal the hideous wound on her chest. In the hallway, the half-Orc woman begins to slow down, her rage ending. She still has more than enough strength to crush Cai, though, since Cai’s gun is demolished, and he had desperately tossed away his own katana the round before. The woman draws back her lightblade katana to kill Cai when a ‘thoosh’ fills the air, and something digs into her shoulder. She glances back for a moment to see the feathered tail of a tranq dart sticking out of her back. She turns and grimaces at her ambusher, Finagle, who is slumped against the hallway wall a few dozen feet away. The half-Orc begins to slump slightly, but she doesn’t go down. Instead, she drops her sword and pulls a pair of pistols from her shoulder holsters. As her knees begin to buckle, she fires off a half-dozen bullets at Finagle. Magically, only one hits him. Even more magically (evil DM vengeance magic, to be precise), four of the bullets rip his auto-site tranquilizing air rifle to bits, scattering shrapnel across the hallway. Jessie always hated that damned thing. Gyroscopic rifle with exploding darts my ass. Um, anyway, Cai steps up behind her, grabs her shoulder to yank her around, then slams his fist into her face, knocking the woman unconscious onto the floor. Once the threat is over, Cai nods in thanks to the normally annoying and whiny Finagle. Back in the main room, Balthazaar keeps the Goblins busy so they can’t harrass the other party members. It’s about 4 to 1 against Balthazaar, but a few seconds later, it’s 1 to 1. Iscalio holds his scythe over Jenny threateningly, but instead of slashing her while she’s down, he concentrates, and suddenly the wooden boards beneath her warp and reach up to entangle her (wooden boards, plus vines and weeds under the house). As Jenny struggles in the grip of the entangle spell, she shouts to her ghost, “Pataman, kick that stupid fox of his!” Pataman does just that, and the one spirit slaps some sense into Iscalio’s bonded spirit, stunning Iscalio for a few seconds. Long enough for Jenny to rip free and swing the haft of her spear into Iscalio’s legs, knocking the man off his feet. The Drow stabs Madeline again, this time in the shoulder, and in desperation the human sorceress grabs at the Dark Elf’s long braid and yanks her around briefly. With the braid in her hand, Madeline has better leverage, and she thrusts her taser into the Dark Elf’s cheek, stunning the Drow silly, but not dropping her. Atop the stairs, Tagin reels in pain as a mental stab fills his mind with pain. Dropping the gun, Tagin draws his switchblade and leaps forward, trying to circle around the telepath. Dalavar slumps against the railing of the stairs, and then suddenly Tagin’s vision changes. After a moment of disorientation, Dalavar is suddenly gone from his sight. Tagin gets a feeling he’s being tricked, though, and he stabs out, feeling his attack connect. Dalavar screams, and Tagin is able to shake off the false visual image Dalavar had tried to implant in his mind. And he sees that Dalavar is holding a pistol at his face. Dalavar is no longer in any condition able to maintain the mental illusion, and Tagin realizes that all his shots hit home, that the telekinetic barrier had been an illusion too. Cai and Finagle hobble back into the room, and Cai tries to run to his brother. Finagle shoots an electric arrow at one Goblin that Balthazaar is fighting, and the jolt knocks the little green guy unconscious. Jenny is slowly pushing herself to her feet, trying to get to Madeline. Iscalio grabs her arm though, and as the druid draws back his scythe, Jenny slaps him in the face, trying to shake him out of it. Iscalio calls her a bitchy whore and knees her in between the legs, which does hurt Jenny, but not as much as Iscalio had probably hoped. Jenny shoves Iscalio backward into a wall and snaps her spear up to press the tip to his throat. Unfortunately, during this exchange Madeline has been having to fend to herself. The Drow stabs Madeline again and kicks away, slashing off her own braid so Madeline can’t keep yanking her hair. As Madeline lays sprawled on the floor, her limbs going rigid from the venom on the dark Elf’s dagger, the dark Elf shadowmage casts darkness on the area around her, creating a blackness so deep even the glowing emerald of Iscalio’s lighscythe is hidden by it. Balthazaar leaps into this darkness to try to stop the woman, but armed with a scimitar of shadows and a poisoned dagger, the Drow sorceress is only slightly concerned at the new attacker. Cai comes up and also covers his brother, holding his katana to his brother’s throat. Finagle just leans against the wall, too injured to be much of a help anymore. Jenny turns to run help Tagin, and thus sees the exchange at the top of the stairs. Tagin lowers his switchblade, staring down the barrel of a pistol to Neil, who has been grazed by three bullets and stabbed in the belly with a knife. Tagin narrows his eyes, standing up to the telepath. “You won’t shoot. You’re too much of a weakling.” Neil is breathing heavily. “You don’t see, do you? If I’m such a weakling, how can I see into your mind, see your memories, know who Legion is? [I]You[/I] are the weakling. [I]I[/I] see! The war is coming, and after it, none of our sins will matter.” Tagin leaps forward and shoves the gun upward just as Dalavar fires. He shoves the telepath sideways and off-balance, knocking him backward and to the edge of the top of the stairs. Tagin scrambles and grabs onto the bannister of the stairs, but Dalavar loses his balance and falls down the steps, rolling and bouncing. He hits the floor with a room-filling ‘snap.’ After a moment of shock, Tagin and Jenny rush to Dalavar’s side. Iscalio suddenly snaps out of the mind control, and he slumps forward into the arms of his brother. Jenny and Tagin kneel beside Dalavar. He’s still alive, barely, but Jenny can tell that the man’s neck is broken, and even with her healing, he would still die from the gunshot wounds. Tagin bends close to Dalavar’s face, looking the dying man in his eyes. “Neil! I’m sorry. I didn’t-. . . .” Dalavar’s face spasms, and he stares off into space blankly as he quietly whispers. “You- . . . you saw him . . . at the gates of heaven. The Son of Man . . . and . . . his Archangel.” Tagin’s head falls upon Dalavar’s chest. He can’t think of anything to say, and after a few moments he moves away and sits blankly by the foot of the stairs. Jenny closes Dalavar’s lifeless eyes, then stands and looks around. The battle is over. With Dalavar gone, the few Goblins who are disabled and not dead crawl away in fear, and everyone else comes free of his domination. In the eventual aftermath, they learn that the Orc, the half-Orc, and the Drow were all knights, and had been dominated by Dalavar while looking for the party. Iscalio tells them his story too, about how he ended up in New Orleans looking for clues about Dalavar, and made the mistake of actually finding the guy. Iscalio grudgingly apologizes for nearly killing Jenny (a scythe deals a LOT of damage on a critical), then tells them what they already know. Autumn is controlling the Chief, and that she’s for some reason working with Legion. The three knights the party rescued agree that the Chief must be mistaken, and they promise to keep the party’s location a secret. The half-Orc woman gives Cai the lightblade she had used, since it wasn’t hers in the first place. In fact, this old house was once a base for the knights, and there’s a small cache of old supplies and equipment in the attic. Among the items they find are two vitally important magical devices—universal keys, able to open any gate anywhere, either between the real world and the faerie world, or between two points on the real world. There’s also a small pile of other loot, which I’ll detail in my next post. But the question is, where now? They have the keys, and can go wherever they want, but where? Iscalio’s heading to England for some unfinished business, but he doesn’t want them following him. The other knights are heading back to the Bureau to try to talk some sense into their co-workers, and to find a way to stop Autumn. The party sits down and thinks, trying to figure out what Dalavar was trying to say in his last moments. And then they realize who Legion is. [/QUOTE]
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