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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7895764" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 253, Part TwoThe Master & the ApprenticeBefore the Bruse could take more than a couple of steps towards Glaucia, there was a sudden series of explosions from within the square and without. The crowd began to panic; the mental broadcast was disrupted. Conquo wanted to see what was happening and swiftly climbed the building in front of him.A giant ‘S’ hundreds of feet across had been lit on the ground in the square. More harmless, arcane pyrotechnics were causing the panic in the side-streets. Across the square from him, Conquo saw another figure standing on the rooftops: windswept, with a billowing black cloak, broad-brimmed black hat and black mask. The Bruse saw him too, and gestured towards him; soldiers levelled their rifles; the figure ducked out of sight, only for another to take advantage of their distraction, and the chaos around them, to leap into the centre of the square and attack the Bruse himself.This newcomer was an elderly eladrin man, with what appeared to be an arm made from salt. “I am Sor Daeron, and I defy the Obscurati!” he cried. “Tell Kasvarina to come and face me!”The Bruse laughed, and his tyrannosaurs attacked the eladrin.“Korrigan is on his way,” said Cyneburg, appearing alongside.   “Let’s go!”  She vanished, and reappeared in the square, where she began to free the prisoners.Conquo leapt off the rooftop and thumped a t-rex.  This thing was a lot bigger than the ones Conquo had faced before; it didn’t seem fazed by his blow and bit him back. The two huge foes ending up wrestling with one another. Recognising Conquo, even in his enlarged form, the Bruse gave an order. Soldiers atop the lantern began to make adjustments. More soldiers at the foot of the lantern began firing on Conquo in unison. There were so many of them, and their volley was so sustained, that they threatened to slowly chip away at his rock-hard form. Glaucia struck them with a pillar of radiant fire, forcing them to break formation.Sor Daeron didn’t trouble himself with details such as who his new allies were – while fending off the dinosaurs, to anyone who cared to listen, he said, “We should do something about that lantern!” At once, the mysterious masked man tight-rope-walked across to try to stop the soldiers from activating it, but second later the dull brown glow became a bright, strobing red and white. All who saw it felt their blood boil, and the red mist descending.The Bruse struck Conquo with his ceremonial greatsword.  It wedged in Conquo’s jagged hide and was torn from his hands.  One of the tyrannosaurs chomped down on Sor Daeron, but he let it take his salt arm, before teleporting away.  His salt arm then regrew.  The masked man made a fighting retreat from the lantern tower, swinging out and down in style to join Cyneburg in helping to free the prisoners.  The orcs fired at him as he went, but he had clearly read Kenna Vigilante’s How Not to Get Shot.Once he was clear, Conquo lifted the t-rex he was wrestling clear off the ground and hurled it bodily at the lantern tower!  The wooden structure couldn’t withstand the impact and collapsed.  Any orcs inside that might have survived did not survive the thrashing of the wounded tyrannosaur as it struggled to get up.Glaucia charged at the Bruse ferociously, no longer bound by any sense of loyalty to him. But the Bruse was a formidable opponent and fended her off. The gnoll then snarled at Brakken, who was standing around uselessly, “Since when have you been a lackey to this blithering fool? I thought you valued your freedom?”This gentle nudge was all it took to free Brakken, whose mind had always been resilient to hiveminds; the Ob must have taken pains to ensure his domination. But now he was free, and looked around, as if taking in the scene for the first time.Orcs charged Conquo, mobbed him.  Even acting in concert, they didn’t pose much of a threat, but they were able to distract him enough for the Bruse to get in a resounding blow with his horns.  Conquo punched him back, and then grabbed him.One of the t-rexes remained uninjured and this one attacked and grabbed Glaucia, thrashing her from side to side in its huge jaws. Brakken called it to heel and it dropped her and stood, snorting and licking its chops.  “Don’t harm it,” said Brakken, “and it will remain calm.”Not so the other t-rex, which had struggled free of the wreckage of tower and now attacked Conquo in defence of its master. Conquo threw the Bruse at the orcs.Sor Daeron, outmatched by the Bruse and the dinosaurs, focused his efforts on the troops. Glaucia too.  Brakken gave a piercing whistle and Feroz answered his command, charging into the square to defend him.Unable to reach Conquo to attack him immediately, the Bruse bellowed in frustration and trapped the golem in a psychic labyrinth, preventing him from moving – the city suddenly became a confusing maze of irregular geometry that Conquo could barely navigate. Then the Bruse ordered his troops to open fire on the pacified tyrannosaur. Freed, it gave an enraged cry, stomped Brakken into the dirt and threw itself on Conquo, who was now battling both of them.This new, improved and enlarge version of Conquo was tough – even tougher than the original version – but he wasn’t as skilled a fighter as other members of the unit. He would win by brute force alone, and in the tyrannosaurs and the Bruse, he had met his match. He might take out one of them, perhaps two, but in the end, he would be defeated. Cyneburg could see all this, and she cried out, “Where the hell is the king?!?”“I’m doing my best!” came the telepathic response: Korrigan was streaking across the rooftops of Seobriga, having taken possession of a duplicant in yet another hayloft. He’d kept an eye on the fight as best he could, and was almost, but not quite, there.The Bruse joined the dinosaurs in mobbing the golem.  Feroz attacked one of the tyrannosaurs, but it shrugged him off. Sor Daeron tried to help, but he was exhausted.  Conquo began to stagger back under the weight of three foes. Their thrashing was dangerous to be around and Brakken, Glaucia, Cyneburg, Sor and the masked stranger withdrew from the square.Conquo knocked out one of the tyrannosaurs and grabbed the Bruse, who now tore off his leather mask, revealing the fleshless bovine skull beneath. “Master Nicodemus told me to say you brought this upon us. We could have been civilized, but you force us to become savages!” Heedless of Conquo’s stony form, the minotaur tried to bite his face off, shattering his own teeth in the process.Now Conquo heard Korrigan’s voice in his head.  “How are you doing? Do you need healing immediately?”“I can… manage… for a couple of… seconds,” Conquo replied.The king covered the final distance in the form of a lightning bolt, arriving with his holy sword raised above the ugly head of the Bruse.  He was about to strike him down without a word, as he had never respected him, and a salient rejoinder was almost beneath his dignity, but in the end he could not help saying at least, “You are not fit to rule Ber.” Then he felled the minotaur.Of course, the Bruse was sustained by the Blood of Ostea, but that only lasted for a moment, as Conquo began to use him as a club to beat the tyrannosaur. “Who bites someone?” said the golem, outraged.Now Korrigan bestowed healing upon Conquo, and said, “Finish the job."  While Conquo finished off the last t-rex, Korrigan turned to their allies and thanked them individually, saving the masked man til last.“Hello, Damata,” he said. Damata Griento took off his hat and gave a low bow.End of Session</blockquote>

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