Carnival of Rust

[RandomRoninKitten]

Amun Khufu/MrBlah

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Contrary to popular belief; Amun's first thoughts when he opened the closet's door wasn't in regards to the beautiful fox girl alone in the room, but the signs he had been desiring for all neatly stacked on a shelf in the closet. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me! ... Ah." But she was the topic of his second thoughts. His eyes were quick to trace her form. Pale skin. Dress. Bows in hair. Tearful, fearful expression. This all pointed to a maiden in distress... Amun knew exactly what to do. He cleared his throat, turned his charms up to maximum, and began. "My humblest apologies for scaring you, my lady." The young Khufu crouched down with a patient and friendly smile, trying to disarm the fox girl and get her to feel more comfortable.

"My name is Amun Khufu, of the Khufu family. I have come to do my part in defeating the monsters that have taken our great city hostage - and help any whom they've taken from their homes. As this includes you, I will do my part to aid you to the best of my abilities." As smooth as always. For full effect, Amun tilted his head slightly to the side in a questioning manner. They always fall for the head tilt. "Could I have your name, miss?"

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Amun successfully calms the girl down and she blushes, clutching her arms to her chest "O-oh, I'm sorry for screaming... I hope the MONSTER in the room across from this one didn't hear me... or if he did, he doesn't care. U-uhm oh, my name is Lisette... it's nice to meet you, Amun... despite the circumstances, of course..." she said, shivering and huddling against the wall, as if to further distance herself from the supposed monster in the other room. "I didn't realize the Khufu family raised warriors, but seeing as the knights of Cielo are nowhere to be found, you may be our only hope... that monster can't be doing anything good in that control room." she said, burying her head in her lap and clutching her knees to her chest.

Anastasia Ursa/LittleManKitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

At this point Anastasia was already becoming jaded to Idalia's strange powers. This girl, whatever she was, Was either a great practitioner in the rumored art of magic, or a strange beast taking the form of a human. Either way, Anastasia didn't really want to get rid of her. She mostly worked solo and having the company of a cute but supremely dangerous girl was quite nice. Though her willingness to eat a bug was quite repulsive to Anastasia. "I don't care how hungry I am, I'm not going to eat some strange bug. I'd have rather actively gone out of my way to search for a more appetizing meal. I'm also surprised the blood of that Filth didn't sate you, considering blood seems to do everything else for you." As she said this Anastasia got onto the other side of the bed once again and closed her eyes. Hoping to get plenty of rest this time around.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Anastasia wakes up, finding that she is, once again, on Idalia's side of the bed, and her arms are tightly wrapped around the girl's mid-section, with her hands slipped into her bra cups, firmly squeezing her breasts. One would think that squeezing them this roughly would cause most people pain, however, the girl seemed to still be sound asleep, seemingly undisturbed. Anastasia would also find that her lower body is pressed against Idalia's back, her bulge lightly rubbing against Idalia's back.

Once the two are ready, cleaned up and dressed, they'll resume their journey to the Colosseum of Fools, and the guards would wave their goodbye after guiding them to the city gates, telling them to feel free to stop by again at any time, with Idalia smiling and waving back, saying to Anastasia "You know, they're REALLY nice, despite their situation here. Maybe you should have let that 'doctor' staple your back wound closed, it probably would have made him really happy~".

The two of them come into sight range of the city of Monsteropolis, they would see a MASSIVE army of zombies streaming into a breach in the wall from a giant black Spire off to their far left, with a large Skeletal Giant towering over the walls and swinging its arms at what would presumably be an army of knights attempting to fight it off, behind the army of undead, large metal troop characters were driving towards the army, presumably to defend the city. On sight, Idalia would grab Anastasia's arm and say "This isn't our destination, but we should probably AT LEAST save your employer or you won't get paid." she said getting ready to break into a run.

Lilith/Mark3000

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As Lilith reviewed the job list, she was a little saddened to hear no news of her mother. Once she was finished her first job she would immediately make a request of her own. As for her first assignment...

"I'll take this one." Lilith pointed her clawed finger towards the request for the Depth Lurker. She would have to learn a bit more about the beast before leaving, but it had been a while since she's gone on an actual hunt. When she and her mother first joined the Nomad camp, they would help gather food. But soon enough, their role slowly shifted to that of concubines for the camp's resident shaman. And if her fight with the Insectoids was any indication, Lilith needed to get back into fighting form.

Taking the black key, Lilith gives the owner a solemn nod. "Thanks you. Thought don't think I've gotten your name" she stated. She needed a proper name for the young Wanderer. Lilith couldn't just call her 'The Owner'. After asking for directions to her room, Lilith would say her farewells and go explore the inn. Hopefully she could find a dinning hall and a place to clean herself off. It seemed like the Yellow Spider Inn would serve as her new home for now.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The owner raised her eyebrows when Lilith pointed to the Request for the Depth Lurker, and she responded slowly "Since you've selected that one, you likely don't know much about it, so I'll give you some tips so that you come back alive and can continue working for me." she inhaled "Depth Lurkers typically sit at the bottom of lakes and wait for prey to come into contact with the surface of the water, at which point that grab it by its limbs and drag it down to the bottom, where it does whatever it desires at the time with it. They are physically very strong, very fast, and have razor sharp teeth, and acidic spit. That job has been up there for a year." she concluded, neglecting to give her name, then motioned for the two girls to lead Lilith to her room.

Her room looked just like the rest of the building, black with some yellow stripes. The room had cabinets, marble tables, and a counter, two spare rooms, a soft and smooth, black leather couch, soft pillows with black cases, black sheets on VERY soft and comfortable beds, and a big black chest for valuables, which had glowing blue crevices, indicating that it was made of Blackwood from the Black Forests. The room was also complete with two bathrooms, each with a shower, and the floors were decorated with even MORE black marble on the walls and floor, and in the kitchen there would be a black stone structure which heats up at the flip of a switch, for cooking food, and a black metal structure which cools itself on the inside.

When Lilith chooses to sleep, she will have the most restful night of her life, and will wake up with full MP and HP, and room service will have left her fresh sheets and towels, as well as a clean black dress, with a yellow Spider-shaped insignia on the back, and a black bra and panties.

CeeCee/Lilbooth

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Cee Cee shook her head frantically as the commander insisted on pressing on. She looked to Magni, a quick flash of blue light glazed his eyes before he stood up. The two of them both rushed the exit of the strange war machine and lept out onto the ground. Cee Cee drew her newly aqquired sword as she and Magni proceeded towards the city. She didn't care to rush in behind the major threat. Instead, as she drew closer she circled around the undead horde and tried to gain entry into the city. The balista was their only hope for taking down the monsters and Cee Cee deperatly searched desperately to find one. If she happened to pass a Monsteropolis guard on her way in she would ask for help in finding it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

CeeCee managed to navigate around the horde of undead and get into the city unscathed, with several undead having attempted to stop her, but none of them being quick enough to intercept her path.

Around her, the city was in chaos, with the Monsteropolis guard force managing to hold off the seemingly limitless undead forces, but also suffering relatively few casualties, however what casualties they did suffer were mostly due to the undead giant. Far behind her, the Barton transports plowed into the back of the zombie forces and began streaming out, meeting them head on, and even further behind, the undead giant that she had faced before was slowly closing in.

Up ahead, about a mile away from her, CeeCee could see a Ballista had been intercepted by a group of five skeletons, with two Monsteropolis Guard corpses around it, and the skeletons were beating on it frantically, but making little headway in actually damaging the weapon.

LuLu/Nobudi

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As the Knights created a barricade between Lucia and the swarms of enemies about to engage them, she noticed that they were split into teams. So waves of enemies instead of one constant barrage. Not great, but much improved from what she feared. Aiming between the gaps of their entrenched formation, she shot out at the first thing she saw. It was clean misses, and she was forced to grit her teeth in preparation for the inevitable collision. Shockingly, the Captain herself was overwhelmingly strong, to the point where when she clashed against her opponent, she cleaved through half of its limbs in a single strike. Two of their enemies followed suit, ganging up on one of the Knights. Lucia finished the first one dying on the ground, execution style before launching another bullet at one of the things attacking the knights.

The fight was staggeringly quick, thanks to Captain Prairie's overwhelming strength. Almost every swing left the enemy close to death, and Lucia would follow up by executing the enemies left dying in the wake of such ferocious attacks. A part of her felt guilty killing. But immediately, her training kicked in and she shoved her feelings aside. Never doubt in a fight. There would be time to sort herself out later. When the first wave had finally departed, she noticed that one of the Knights had fallen. She grit her teeth, but couldn't let her feeling take control. More were on the way. Quickly, she sorted the bodies, taking a look at things of note. Mostly junk potions, but there were things of use. She put on the necklace and put the maul off to the side. Potions could be examined later, but her healing potion was staying within reach. Everything else went into the bag.

As she reloaded, she barked, "Ready yourselves once more, Proud Knights of Cielo! The enemy is once more upon us!"

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

LuLu finished looting the last of the five bodies after the enemies had fallen, and immediately the next group sprung at them, as if bouncing on springs. Captain Prairie checked Sir Kummstanshole's pulse, a single tear rolled down her cheek, then she grabbed his weapon in addition to her own, and stood up back into a battle stance, readying her weapon. "Sir Kummstanshole's death cannot be in vain, we must save Cielo." she said, angrily, yet also level-headed, in a way that showed she was still in full control of herself.

In the next moments, the next squad of enemies was upon them, and the three remaining knights of Cielo met them, fighting in honor of their fallen comrade.

Caelic/KnightVanilla

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As she had gathered more and more of her belongings before finally settling on the idea of leaving home for some sense of safety. To see the multitude of undead as well as a rather absurdly large skeletons. This was a definitely a place she would not want to be in at the moment. to her fortune the knights seemed to be doing just exactly what was needed to buy her time to escape. That was until a blade came through the door. With no potions and very little time to think she yelped out "The fuck!" Quickly building a trap incorporating her crossbow to repeatedly fire.

Until finally the giant undead had struck at her house causing everything around her to shake and shudder as she could only yell out "The Fuck!" Before preparing to fire her crossbow. With no potions found and absolutely no useful things to make out of potions around her for some strange reason. She decided that within the moment it was far to costly to lose her home.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

A group of three skeletons finally broke down the door and stepped into the room, each one brandishing a rusty sword and a matching shield, while wearing rusted armor.



The skeletal warriors slowly approached Caelic and made a small semi-circle around her and began bashing their swords against their shields in rhythm while making short raspy barking sounds with each step.

Outside, another force, the one she had seen fighting the undead giant earlier, was now joining the Monsteropolis forces in fighting the undead horde. These forces seemed to be highly trained, holding their own even better than the Monsteropolis Guard, despite being much smaller in number. They also had drove large metal transport vehicles into the fight, implying that their technology was also more advanced. However, their forces were still failing to make any headway against the undead giant.

MiscChaos/Ophelia

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Ophelia merely notes the wire bitch's ability to heal using what's probably Ophelia's blood based on what the wire bitch said before taking another shot at her face. Her face that is open to the guard's scrutiny. It's not a long term problem as he won't remember it anyway, but her face hurts too much to wear her mask right now so it would have happened no matter what. Still, after the treatment she just received from the wire whore and the culture-less barbarian she more expected a more extreme reaction. She'll keep her guard up regardless since it'd be just like another race to lure a Nomad into a trap.

"Indeed. I require a place to rest and a place to clean off. There is a scarab nearby that should be torn apart for material nearby." She doesn't directly take credit for the kill, but she supposes there's nothing wrong with allowing the guard to think so. She should be out of town by the next morning anyway so that shouldn't be enough time for any sort of reputation to follow after her. A reputation would reduce her usefulness to her Lady after all. Anything that causes that cannot be allowed. She also doesn't mention that the majority of her damage was caused by other people. That usually invites questions as to why she was attacked and people usually assume the worst.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The guard at the gate would introduce himself as Grald, and escort Ophelia into the camp, showing her to the structure that the two women had exited and entered, and to a basic-looking room, with a sheet of metal, sitting on the floor, with a burlap sack, filled with some soft gel-like material, on top, and some blankets, made from a silky substance, slick to the touch, but not sticky. Also within the room was a cabinet, made from rotting wood, and a spherical container with a gel-like substance coating the inside, which was cold to the touch and kept the inside of the container cold enough to generate thin layers of ice. The room's floor was rotting wood and metal, patched together with MORE rotting wood and metal, matching the walls and ceiling. On the opposite end of the room was a rusted metal tub with a burlap curtain hanging around it, and a faucet.

The guard would then happily tell her to have a good night, give her a smile, then leave her to her privacy.

After sleeping the full night and waking up in the morning, Ophelia would hear the two women from before talking as they walked down the hallway, however, what they were saying would not be understandable due to the walls and door muffling it. After a few seconds, she'd hear them scaling the steps down to the bottom floor, and wouldn't be able to hear them anymore.

[Littlemankitten]

Anastasia nuzzles into the warm pillow again, mumbling to herself about not wanting to get up, but she started to feel fully awake already. Wait a minute... This feels familiar. Anastasia opens her eyes and finds once again, she was spooning Idalia, this time in an even more compromising position! Why did her hands decide to go there of all places!? Well, it could be worse, there is one place that would be even more lewd than the one her hands found. Also why where her hands sque-. Ah, it didn't matter. Moving around a little, trying to unfurl herself from Idalia without waking her up till she was ready, she felt her half-erect cock rub against Idalia's back. This having been the most sexual encounter she's had in a long time, her cock fully sprang to life and quickly rose, rubbing itself against Idalia's back even more. Stifling a soft moan, Anastasia managed to let go of Idalia and scoot away. Thankfully her clothing was made in such a way her cock isn't visible even fully erect.

Getting out of bed, Anastasia goes to Idalia and shakes her lightly to wake her up. She then goes to the small wash area and rinses her face and rubs her eyes, though she was pretty sure with how this place is all the water did was make her dirtier. Wanting to get out of her as soon as possible, she exited the room as soon as Idalia showed she was ready and practically ran down the stairs. She slowed down once they were outside and walked with Idalia out of the city. At her comment about the doctor she said. "I think I'd of rather ate that scarab's carapace then let him anywhere near me." Any further comments about it would yield equally snarky responses from Anastasia.

When Monsteropolis came into view Anastasia would let out a loud groan. "What the Hell? Are those... Are those zombies? Those exist??? Also why is that skeleton so huge?" Anastasia was very confused, and wondered just how many more weird things would happen on her way to the Colosseum of fools. Upon Idalia's suggestion, Anastasia groaned even louder. She had a point though, there would be no point in finishing the job if no one would pay her for it. "Fine... Lets go." Anastasia began running towards the action. This was going to be... Fun.

[MiscChaos]

Ophelia allows herself to be lead to the establishment by this "Gerald" guardsman. She even allows herself to be herded into the room. That's the limit of her trust for a stranger though. It IS the same building the wire whore and the barbarian are staying in after all. This could very well be a trap to allow them to finish the job. She finds anything like a chair or table or something to put in front of the door. It may not stop someone determined to come in, but it will at least give her ample warning. That done, she faces the rusted heap that dares to call itself a tub. It's a necessity at this point because she refuses to continue to smell like refuse, but her Lady wouldn't deign to even consider such a thing a joke. And yet it's her only option. With a sigh, she strips down naked and runs the faucet. She scrubs herself down as efficiently as possible, wanting the taint of the no doubt impure water to grace her skin for as little as possible but absolutely needing to make sure that she once again smells like herself rather than Scarab droppings. Once she's sure that every inch of her has been cleansed, she runs her clothing through the same treatment. It'd be pointless to wash herself if her garments still carried the scent after all. It takes longer before she's sure that there's no trace of dung in her clothing and leaves them above the curtain to dry, but she thinks it's worth it. With her clothing still wet and her Lady's directive to think about anyway, Ophelia finally turns in for the day in the buff.

She's not sure if she wakes naturally or if it's the voices of her personal targets that rouses her from sleep, but she holds still until the voices completely disappear from earshot. She doesn't need a rematch this soon. She hasn't even come up with a plan to separate them yet after all. Without that, it'd very likely be a repeat of last night with likely more disastrous results as they haven't been worn down by her aura and a previous battle. She dresses herself in her garments and experimentally pokes her face to see if it can withstand her mask. It's still horribly tender from taking TWO FUCKING KICKS courtesy of the wire whore, but she thinks she can don her mask now. She gives it a few minutes just to be 100% sure that the Bitch Duo is far out of her range before she finally exits the room.

Her Lady's instruction said that the man she is to kill is in the Colosseum of Fools, so that will continue to be her goal for the time being. Still, some sort of ranged option would be nice. She's never missed her throwing knives more than she does now. She decides to look through this rust heap of a town to see if it is possible to obtain some throwing knives before she makes her way for the Colosseum.

[lilbooth]

Cee Cee gained some confidence as she made it into the city. The guards were doing their best to hold off the horde, and the Barton Knights were giving much-needed support. Navigating the city on a large owlbear prooved to be a bit of a challenge but she managed to find a ballista. She had fought the strange purple zombies before but these seemingly normal sized skeletons where new to her. Some very powerful necromancer must be in control of this army. And the fact that those strange black pillars where popping up all around the region, if not the world, made her very worried. But she had to focus on the task at hand. She rushed towards the skeletons and embraced the wolf as she went. She commanded Magni to target one of the skeletons and crush it with all his might. Meanwhile, she slid off his back and brought her sword down twice on a different skeleton.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

So slam for Magni and activating monster for Cee Cee. Also, would I have had time on the transport to change armor? Put on the new amulet and have Magni wear the other one? If not that's fine I totally forgot about the new one honestly, but the buffs are good.

[Mark3000]

The more Lilith heard about the Depth Lurker, the more she realized she had made a terrible mistake. Gathering water was always the hardest part of surviving the wilderness. Her mother barely let her near it. Lilith nodded, thanking the Owner for the information. Lilith didn't even mind not getting her name. She just wanted to rest for a bit.

Once she entered her room, the young Wanderer's jaw was agape. It was the the nicest room she had ever seen. Lilith just had to take a moment to take in it's grandeur. It might be a good idea to just work at the Yellow Spider Inn. After a quick shower, she collapses into onto her new bed. Her mind drifting to sleep. "Maybe I should have just stayed in the camp" Lilith whispered as her eyes closed ...

________________________________________________________________________________________

When she awoke, she found the new set of clothing, complete with the mercenary's insignia. Lilith dressed herself and started to work out a strategy for taking down the Depth Lurker. As she did, she winched and stared at her wounds from last night. She had barely made it out of that encounter alive. Perhaps jumping head long into another life or death situation wasn't the best idea. But she had already chosen the the Depth Lurker job. Going back on her first assignment with the Yellow Spiders would definitely cause problems in the future.

No she had to go through with this. She just needed a plan. Looking through her supplies, she made note of her various traps . She also remembered she had the stingers she had taken from those dead Insectoids. With the right bait, Lilith thought to herself. She also had the strange potion. It seemed powerful and would prove a useful trump card. With her confidence somewhat restored, Lilith peaked inside the big black chest. Even if it was empty, she could appreciate the woodwork.

Going down to the lobby, she would look for the owner and see if she could get her hands on some rope. Her plan was to find a smaller creature that frequents the water ways. Then use is as bait to lure the Depth Lurker out of the water into a Binding trap. From their it would be a matter of wearing the beast down. Once she had everything she needed, Lilith would make her way south and begin the hunt.

[mrblah]

Oh, right. The mission. He unfortunately didn't have time to seduce the young fox woman. "Have no fear. I will put a stop to this monster's reign of terror." He still wasn't sure how yet... but if reinforcements were arriving soon, perhaps he wouldn't need to? "For now, fair maiden, I believe it'd be best if you remained here. No one has yet to find you, outside is a terrible place to be, and this way I'll know where to go when I escort you out." Amun kept his tone confident and smooth, though he wasn't quite that on the inside. His time was coming soon, he knew. He'd have to face off against that creature... and not die.

Easy enough, hopefully. "I must go for now, Lisette, but I will come back after this all blows over. Please be very careful, okay?" Amun was standing as he spoke, the reminder that time was of the essence pushing him back into gear. The monster was in the next room over, correct? He left Lisette there, closing the door swiftly and silently, then turned to head to that specific room... this was it, Amun. The make it or break it moment. His nerves were going haywire. Several thoughts were passing by in his mind... could he do this? Would he fail? Isn't there someone better suited to playing the hero than him who could take his place?

No matter what the answers were, the here and now was that he was needed, and if there was such a hero available - they weren't there. He was. "What rotten luck I must have..." He muttered to himself. Amun slowly opened the door and peered in, his body on high alert and ready to jump away at any noticeable danger.

[KnightVanilla]

As the door broke down in front of her Caelic reacted by drawing her cross bow from the construction and aimed it at the first of the three skeletons that was approaching her as it banged it's weapon on it's shield in some sort of tribal manner. A bit confused and hopeful for the free shot she pulls the trigger firing upon the creature. Knowing fully well that the other two would try to chase her then and now she tries to go back upstairs into the unstable part of the building in hopes of throwing them off in some manner. If the building was gonna collapse she wasn't gonna be under all of the rubble after all.

[lilbooth]

Having made quick work of the skeletons Cee Cee ran towards the ballista. She orders Magni to spread out what was left of the skeleton corpses for fear that magic that animated them would raise them again. She began to aim the ballista towards the giant skeleton that was destroying the city. She had never fired a ballista before. So her first shot was likely just going to be used to sight in her target. Regardless she had Magni help her load the ballista and crank back the siege weapon.

[RandomRoninKitten]

Anastasia Ursa/LittleManKitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Anastasia nuzzles into the warm pillow again, mumbling to herself about not wanting to get up, but she started to feel fully awake already. Wait a minute... This feels familiar. Anastasia opens her eyes and finds once again, she was spooning Idalia, this time in an even more compromising position! Why did her hands decide to go there of all places!? Well, it could be worse, there is one place that would be even more lewd than the one her hands found. Also why where her hands sque-. Ah, it didn't matter. Moving around a little, trying to unfurl herself from Idalia without waking her up till she was ready, she felt her half-erect cock rub against Idalia's back. This having been the most sexual encounter she's had in a long time, her cock fully sprang to life and quickly rose, rubbing itself against Idalia's back even more. Stifling a soft moan, Anastasia managed to let go of Idalia and scoot away. Thankfully her clothing was made in such a way her cock isn't visible even fully erect.

Getting out of bed, Anastasia goes to Idalia and shakes her lightly to wake her up. She then goes to the small wash area and rinses her face and rubs her eyes, though she was pretty sure with how this place is all the water did was make her dirtier. Wanting to get out of her as soon as possible, she exited the room as soon as Idalia showed she was ready and practically ran down the stairs. She slowed down once they were outside and walked with Idalia out of the city. At her comment about the doctor she said. "I think I'd of rather ate that scarab's carapace then let him anywhere near me." Any further comments about it would yield equally snarky responses from Anastasia.

When Monsteropolis came into view Anastasia would let out a loud groan. "What the Hell? Are those... Are those zombies? Those exist??? Also why is that skeleton so huge?" Anastasia was very confused, and wondered just how many more weird things would happen on her way to the Colosseum of fools. Upon Idalia's suggestion, Anastasia groaned even louder. She had a point though, there would be no point in finishing the job if no one would pay her for it. "Fine... Lets go." Anastasia began running towards the action. This was going to be... Fun.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Idalia snickered and looked at Anastasia when she said the word 'skeleton', then replied "That's no Skeleton, that's a Bone Golem, they're constructs built by Necromancers, rather than actual giant undead. Although, they do use actual corpses to construct them." she said, apparently deciding not to run, and instead moving behind Anastasia and following her to Monsteropolis, keeping pace with her.

When they got closer, they saw the heavily armored transport vehicles plowing into the army of undead from the back, followed by knights in grey armor and red cloaks streaming out of them and attacking the undead hordes, slowly whittling away their numbers without taking any losses. From even further back, however, another massive undead creature was making its way slowly towards the city as well, followed by a second one erupting out of the ground and following closely behind it.

When Idalia saw the giant undead, she cackled to herself and said "WOW, this Necromancer has been BUSY." then she slapped Anastasia on the back and continued "Okay, have fun now. I'd help, buuut... I've eaten undead before, and they taste terrible." just as she finishes saying this, she dashes off at high speed, then jumps into a nearby tree, standing on a high branch, and waves at Anastasia from her vantage point.

With Anastasia now near the zombie and skeleton horde, seven Zombies lurch towards Anastasia, flailing their arms and groaning at her as they enter Short Range.

Ophelia/MiscChaos

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Ophelia allows herself to be lead to the establishment by this "Gerald" guardsman. She even allows herself to be herded into the room. That's the limit of her trust for a stranger though. It IS the same building the wire whore and the barbarian are staying in after all. This could very well be a trap to allow them to finish the job. She finds anything like a chair or table or something to put in front of the door. It may not stop someone determined to come in, but it will at least give her ample warning. That done, she faces the rusted heap that dares to call itself a tub. It's a necessity at this point because she refuses to continue to smell like refuse, but her Lady wouldn't deign to even consider such a thing a joke. And yet it's her only option. With a sigh, she strips down naked and runs the faucet. She scrubs herself down as efficiently as possible, wanting the taint of the no doubt impure water to grace her skin for as little as possible but absolutely needing to make sure that she once again smells like herself rather than Scarab droppings. Once she's sure that every inch of her has been cleansed, she runs her clothing through the same treatment. It'd be pointless to wash herself if her garments still carried the scent after all. It takes longer before she's sure that there's no trace of dung in her clothing and leaves them above the curtain to dry, but she thinks it's worth it. With her clothing still wet and her Lady's directive to think about anyway, Ophelia finally turns in for the day in the buff.

She's not sure if she wakes naturally or if it's the voices of her personal targets that rouses her from sleep, but she holds still until the voices completely disappear from earshot. She doesn't need a rematch this soon. She hasn't even come up with a plan to separate them yet after all. Without that, it'd very likely be a repeat of last night with likely more disastrous results as they haven't been worn down by her aura and a previous battle. She dresses herself in her garments and experimentally pokes her face to see if it can withstand her mask. It's still horribly tender from taking TWO FUCKING KICKS courtesy of the wire whore, but she thinks she can don her mask now. She gives it a few minutes just to be 100% sure that the Bitch Duo is far out of her range before she finally exits the room.

Her Lady's instruction said that the man she is to kill is in the Colosseum of Fools, so that will continue to be her goal for the time being. Still, some sort of ranged option would be nice. She's never missed her throwing knives more than she does now. She decides to look through this rust heap of a town to see if it is possible to obtain some throwing knives before she makes her way for the Colosseum.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As Ophelia searched through the town, she is treated to the sight of the Dark-Haired girl and the Spectross heading towards Monsteropolis and out of view. As she searches, she is also greeted numerous times by the residents of the city, all of them, young and old, welcoming her to Ferraille and wishing her a good day.

During her search, she finds that all of their structures look like heaps of scrap, and among them are a giant room in which frozen creature parts are stored to remain cold, an armory with nothing but scrap armor and scrap weapons, none of which seemed practical in battle unless there was nothing else available, two other scrap structures which were full of rooms, just like the one she has already been in, and a structure that looked to be a bath house.

Entering the store last, the Knight at the counter greets her immediately, saying "Hello! You look like you're from out of town. Welcome to Ferraille, it's so nice to have a visitor. Please, help yourself to some of our stock, after all, we're the armory, and everyone needs to defend themselves in a world like this!" he makes his way around the counter and grabs one of the swords, a hunk of scrap metal with sharpened edges and a leather strip around the hilt, he blade and hilt rusted and seemingly randomly colored with green, brown, red, and white in various areas, preventing it from being aesthetically pleasing even if it didn't look like it had been run over by a behemoth of a creature. The man then hands her a suit of scrap armor, which looked like it was made of misshapen hunks of scrap, beaten with a hammer until it could be worn, and colored similarly to the sword, with the helmet looking like a metal bucket with an eye slit cut out.

Her search turns up no ranged weapons, however, and if it did, given this place's technology, they would be questionable in battle, at best.

Ophelia found:

Scrap Armor: Toughness+1
Scrap Blade: 1d4/Engaged

CeeCee/Lilbooth

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Cee Cee gained some confidence as she made it into the city. The guards were doing their best to hold off the horde, and the Barton Knights were giving much-needed support. Navigating the city on a large owlbear prooved to be a bit of a challenge but she managed to find a ballista. She had fought the strange purple zombies before but these seemingly normal sized skeletons where new to her. Some very powerful necromancer must be in control of this army. And the fact that those strange black pillars where popping up all around the region, if not the world, made her very worried. But she had to focus on the task at hand. She rushed towards the skeletons and embraced the wolf as she went. She commanded Magni to target one of the skeletons and crush it with all his might. Meanwhile, she slid off his back and brought her sword down twice on a different skeleton.

Having made quick work of the skeletons Cee Cee ran towards the ballista. She orders Magni to spread out what was left of the skeleton corpses for fear that magic that animated them would raise them again. She began to aim the ballista towards the giant skeleton that was destroying the city. She had never fired a ballista before. So her first shot was likely just going to be used to sight in her target. Regardless she had Magni help her load the ballista and crank back the siege weapon.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

When CeeCee loads the weapon, she finds that there were a total of three shots available, with the rest apparently broken by the undead before she had arrived.

She also finds that she has a clear shot, at the creature from her current location:

Her first shot misses the giant undead entirely, and hits the already-unstable tower, which rocks side to side violently, then topples to the side, falling ontop of the giant undead and knocking it to the ground. When the giant undead rises again, it's missing half of its torso, including an entire arm, and part of its skull is crushed in. The creature swings its head around to face CeeCee, and begins lumbering towards her, awkwardly, now ignoring the Monsteropolis guards.

Caelic/KnightVanilla

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As the door broke down in front of her Caelic reacted by drawing her cross bow from the construction and aimed it at the first of the three skeletons that was approaching her as it banged it's weapon on it's shield in some sort of tribal manner. A bit confused and hopeful for the free shot she pulls the trigger firing upon the creature. Knowing fully well that the other two would try to chase her then and now she tries to go back upstairs into the unstable part of the building in hopes of throwing them off in some manner. If the building was gonna collapse she wasn't gonna be under all of the rubble after all.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Caelic manages to kill the last of the Skeleton creatures, however, her victory is short-lived, as the tower then begins to topple, causing her to flail around inside it until it suddenly impacts the giant skeletal creature outside.

The world turns black for what seems like an eternity, however she starts to open her eyes and sees that the world around her is still in chaos, so she couldn't have been out long. Her back and ribs ache, and lifting herself up, she would find out why; She had been lying in a pile of partly-crumbled stone.

Around her, she could see that the giant skeletal creature was now lumbering towards a Were-Beast in knight armor, and an Owlbear, who were standing next to a ballista. The creature lumbering towards them, from before, was now in significantly worse shape than before, missing half of its body, including an arm, and part of its skull. On her other side, the Monsteropolis guards were continuing to fight the undead horde, unable to turn their backs to pursue the giant undead, otherwise the army before them would perform a sweeping advance. The town, otherwise, seemed to be hiding in their houses.

Lilith/Mark3000

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The more Lilith heard about the Depth Lurker, the more she realized she had made a terrible mistake. Gathering water was always the hardest part of surviving the wilderness. Her mother barely let her near it. Lilith nodded, thanking the Owner for the information. Lilith didn't even mind not getting her name. She just wanted to rest for a bit.

Once she entered her room, the young Wanderer's jaw was agape. It was the the nicest room she had ever seen. Lilith just had to take a moment to take in it's grandeur. It might be a good idea to just work at the Yellow Spider Inn. After a quick shower, she collapses into onto her new bed. Her mind drifting to sleep. "Maybe I should have just stayed in the camp" Lilith whispered as her eyes closed ...

________________________________________________________________________________________

When she awoke, she found the new set of clothing, complete with the mercenary's insignia. Lilith dressed herself and started to work out a strategy for taking down the Depth Lurker. As she did, she winched and stared at her wounds from last night. She had barely made it out of that encounter alive. Perhaps jumping head long into another life or death situation wasn't the best idea. But she had already chosen the the Depth Lurker job. Going back on her first assignment with the Yellow Spiders would definitely cause problems in the future.

No she had to go through with this. She just needed a plan. Looking through her supplies, she made note of her various traps . She also remembered she had the stingers she had taken from those dead Insectoids. With the right bait, Lilith thought to herself. She also had the strange potion. It seemed powerful and would prove a useful trump card. With her confidence somewhat restored, Lilith peaked inside the big black chest. Even if it was empty, she could appreciate the woodwork.

Going down to the lobby, she would look for the owner and see if she could get her hands on some rope. Her plan was to find a smaller creature that frequents the water ways. Then use is as bait to lure the Depth Lurker out of the water into a Binding trap. From their it would be a matter of wearing the beast down. Once she had everything she needed, Lilith would make her way south and begin the hunt.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The owner would be standing right where she had been when Lilith went up to her room, as if she hadn't left in the first place. When asked for rope, she would cock her head in confusion, then call one of her employees, which would bring her a solid black rope. When the owner hands it to Lilith, it wouldn't feel or look like rope, but it would move as if it were. Upon closer inspection, it isn't braided, it's just a slick black rope-like tool. "Good luck." she said, upon handing it to her.

When Lilith leaves, she would pass by the same knight as before, who would seemingly ignore her, besides writing her name down on his clipboard. She would then have to crawl through the usual tiny hallway and get through the numerous locks, to get out.

On her way towards her destination, she would come to some steep mountains blocking her path to the water, and to the south she would know there is a Black Forest. At this point, Lilith would need to decide whether she wants to scale the mountains or go around, through the forest.

On the far side of the mountain, nearly out of sight, Lilith could see a black spire, identical to the one she had left to investigate before, however, she would know for a fact that it hadn't been there before.

Amun Khufu/MrBlah

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Oh, right. The mission. He unfortunately didn't have time to seduce the young fox woman. "Have no fear. I will put a stop to this monster's reign of terror." He still wasn't sure how yet... but if reinforcements were arriving soon, perhaps he wouldn't need to? "For now, fair maiden, I believe it'd be best if you remained here. No one has yet to find you, outside is a terrible place to be, and this way I'll know where to go when I escort you out." Amun kept his tone confident and smooth, though he wasn't quite that on the inside. His time was coming soon, he knew. He'd have to face off against that creature... and not die.

Easy enough, hopefully. "I must go for now, Lisette, but I will come back after this all blows over. Please be very careful, okay?" Amun was standing as he spoke, the reminder that time was of the essence pushing him back into gear. The monster was in the next room over, correct? He left Lisette there, closing the door swiftly and silently, then turned to head to that specific room... this was it, Amun. The make it or break it moment. His nerves were going haywire. Several thoughts were passing by in his mind... could he do this? Would he fail? Isn't there someone better suited to playing the hero than him who could take his place?

No matter what the answers were, the here and now was that he was needed, and if there was such a hero available - they weren't there. He was. "What rotten luck I must have..." He muttered to himself. Amun slowly opened the door and peered in, his body on high alert and ready to jump away at any noticeable danger.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Peering inside, Amun would see the creature that had faced Sir Cole before, standing at a control panel, steering the entire city of Cielo himself. Besides two corpses of Cielo Knights nearby, the creature would be in the room by himself.

The room is rather large, putting the creature at Medium range, and it didn't seem to have noticed Amun yet, granting him the much-needed element of surprise. Standing there behind the door, Amun could also feel the city of Cielo changing angle slightly as the creature moved its arms.

Behind Amun, a voice could be heard, suddenly "What are you doing, mister?" said a Were-Beast standing directly behind him, a little girl in a red and white dress, with one blue eye and one red eye, not using her inside voice at all. She then asked "Is it safe to come out now?" as she gestured towards the room behind her, the door slightly ajar. "My daddy told me to stay in that room, but didn't tell me how long... it has been a really long time". As she was still speaking, Amun could hear a rumbling behind him, and could feel the floor shaking, turning back would reveal that the creature had apparently heard the little girl, and was now approaching him slowly, revving up his sword and growling. Behind him, the girl noticed this and backed up, screaming.

LuLu/Nobudi

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

After the last enemy had dropped to the ground, un-moving, ALL of the remaining enemies, before Prairie had time to mourn the loss of her fallen comrade, moved into a single group directly ahead of them and one threw down an object, which erected a massive cloud of smoke, engulfing everything and blocking LuLu's sight.

When the cloud had dissipated, standing before them was a massive creature in brass armor, with plumes of smoke erupting from its head, holding a massive shield, and a shield as tall as itself, the creature lumbered forward and slammed its shield down at LuLu's squad.

[MiscChaos]

Well, she supposes she shouldn't be surprised this "town" was utterly worthless when it came to equipment. The entire thing is made of scrap and their guards are equipped with scrap so only having scrap should have been a foregone conclusion. At the very least, she's fairly sure she can take the scrap items she found apart and make rudimentary throwing knives out of that. While the thought is fresh in her mind, she gives it a go, taking apart the items she just got and her old hidden blade and trying to make her desired weapons. Only, she goes wrong somewhere. Then goes even more wrong to the point where making a weapon is inadvisable with what she ended up with. She can maybe make a bit of armor with the pieces instead so she does that. The result isn't as all covering as her Shroud, but it's just as sturdy and weighs less. It might also help with seeming less of a threat if so desired due to the bared midriff of it all. Well... the new armor isn't terrible and her old armor has already failed her once against her personal assignment. She almost strips to put the armor on right where she stands, but remembers her Lady's advice to stay as inconspicuous as possible. Being naked in the street doesn't seem to fall within those parameters so she finds somewhere out of the way to remove her Shroud and equip the Salvaged Armor instead, making sure to place her mask back on her face when she's done.

Coming out of her alley, she decides it's time to leave town, but keeps getting thrown off by how... kind? Is that the word she's looking for? She doesn't use it often so she doesn't know. Anyways, not a single townsperson seems hostile to her. Even if the mask she wears hides her race, the mask itself usually draws distrust. She's unsure if this is genuine or the set up for an even more harsh trap later. Probably a good thing thing she doesn't intend to be around long enough to find out. With her wounds recovered (mostly seeing as her face is still pretty tender. Her back also throbs painfully on occasion) and her search complete, she decides it's time to resume her Lady's assignment. She noticed her own personal assignment leaving town, but she still doesn't have a way to destroy them so they will have to wait. Her target is still in the Colosseum of Fools as far as she's aware, so that's where she's headed. Destination locked, she moves out.

[mrblah]

Every individual hair on his body raised at the sight of his opponent, as Amun's worst fears were confirmed. The very same being that defeated the powerful knight that was Sir Cole... the very powerful monster that orchestrated this whole event was none other than the head honcho of the masked men. Amun gulped. This... this was it. He knew what he was in for when he stepped into the building. Maybe he'd been optimistic, but... there was truly no going back. Thankfully, he had some time to prepare. Maybe he could set a trap or -

His head snapped to the side, body comically jumping a bit at the appearance of the little girl. "Shh! Shhh!" As she was speaking, he hurriedly tried to shush her, even going so far as to wave a hand for her to stop. "Stop! If you talk so loudly, it's gonna hear..." Amun trailed off, his pointing finger falling limp at the sound of growling. He turned his head...

The monster had apparently noticed the both of them, and was on its way there. The ground shook from the revving of its weapon. Its slow and measured steps... all in all, the intentions of the masked monster was very much apparent. Amun really only had one complaint to mutter. "God... this is why I hate kids." Amun quickly spun around to the child, getting down on one knee and addressing her, his face full of alarm and panic.

"Listen to me. We're going to run, alright? We're going to run back and then you go into that door there," Amun pointed to the closet Lisette was hiding in, "with a friend of mine. As quickly and silently as you can, close the door and don't open it until someone comes to rescue you both, okay?" He closed the door, took the girl's hand, and ran halfway back to Lisette's closet. Stopping midway, he gestured for her to keep running to the door. "I'll distract him for now, just go and hide!" Was the hurried explanation Amun offered as he kicked a door to make some noise, and also provide another escape route if he's charged.

[Littlemankitten]

(Warning: Big wall of text)

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Anastasia heard of necromancy, but always thought it was a myth, after all, all kinds of magic were just rumors. Until now apparently, who knew? Anastasia just shook her head at Idalia’s words. “I don’t even know what to say at this point… Let’s just go find my employer. Anastasia jogged towards the undead horde leisurely, not wanting to waste precious energy. It didn't seem like Idalia was in much of a hurry anyway either. Upon getting close to the hoard, Anastasia noted the presence of heavily armored vehicles, they were very rare back in Azraq, and almost all of the ones that did come around Azraq were from Fero. The amount of armored vehicles here showed that this army meant business in defeating the undead threat. Getting into attacking range of a small group of zombies that looked like they used to be fairly reasonably armed soldiers, Anastasia almost didn’t realize what Idalia meant by her words till she was already on a tree, content with letting Anastasia do all the work. “What the fuck Idalia? Get down from there an help me!” It was already clear that Idalia had no intention of doing it, and the group of zombies had already noticed her. Looks like she had to deal with them before she could do anything about Idalia.

“But, I’m not hungry. You can handle it, it’ll be fun, trust me!” she called back to Anastasia, smiling at her innocently.

“I don’t care about fun, I care about winning, and you’re making this a lot harder than it needs to be!” After saying that, Anastasia charged the group wildey, aiming for the closest one, but lost her balance and ended up swinging her hammer straight into the ground next to the zombie. As she struggled to heft her hammer back into striking position, all of them hit, struck, stabbed, and punched her with their weapons and in one case, fist. Only one of them actually did any damage however, the one with a large battleaxe, which actually managed to pierce her skin enough to where she could feel it. Letting out an angered roar, she swung at the zombie she was aiming for before, this time hitting it clean in the head, its head flying straight off into the ground. The zombie stumbled around for a few more moments before falling.

During the struggle, Idalia piped up again “Hey, I found a four-leaf clover! Do you know how rare these are?” she called over to her, seemingly oblivious of the battle Anastasia was fighting.

“Fuck you Idalia, as soon as I’m done with these bastards I’ll shove your face in the ground to see all the clovers you want!” As she was talking, the zombies did something peculiar, black fangs suddenly jutted out from their mouths, a feeling of dread suddenly washing over Anastasia, suddenly, quicker than any walking pile of rotten flesh has the right to go, they all bit into Anastasia at once, she let out a surprised cry of agony but managed to push them all off, her inside feeling like they were on fire. She coughed up some blood. ‘What did they do?” She thought to herself. The pain quickly turned to rage though, adrenaline coursed through her veins. Letting her anger take a hold of her, she shouted “Fuck you!” To the nearest zombie and swung her hammer into its side as hard as she could. Apparently, she didn’t realize her own strength. As soon as her hammer made contact with the zombie, a loud crack sounded through the area, as if a small lightning bolt struck, and the zombie went, quite literally, flying through the air, over the walls of the city. Anastasia exhaled, and tried to calm herself down, her arms aching from the force of the hit.

Idalia watches the Zombie fly over the wall and comments from several yards away “If you shove my face in the ground, I wouldn’t be able to see the clovers, though… you know?” just barely loud enough for Anastasia to hear.

“Are you TRYING to be annoying? Or does it just come naturally?” Anastasia shouted at Idalia.Turns out the zombies had another trick up their sleeves as well, they all breathed in, then let out a large plum of green gas at Anastasia. Anastasia quickly held her breath and covered her mouth. The gas stung her skin, but it disappeared quickly, and she took a deep breath. She felt fine, so it seemed like the breath didn’t do what it was supposed to. After the gas disappeared, she hefted her hammer up and hit another zombie in the head, this time its head just caved in on itself and the zombie immediately feel to the ground.

Idalia picked a flower near the tree she was in and twirled it in her hand while she called over again “You know, that gas smells awful. We should probably take showers when we get back. You’ll probably smell like you got sprayed by a Dire Skunk.” she said, smelling the flower she had picked.

Anastasia said nothing to Idalia this time, too angry at her to make any coherent come back. The remaining zombies inhaled again, and Anastasia immediately held her breath in preparation. However, the preemptive planning seems to have worked against her, and she had to take a deep breath right before the gas disappeared, her throat immediately seemed to catch on fire, and she coughed heavily, blood spurting out. Anastasia focuses her attention on the one that she thinked breathed last, and swung her hammer upwards, hitting its jaw, making its head fly off. Its head landed next to the other one, and it crumpled to the ground. She could feel the gas slowly eat away at her insides, it was quite agonizing.

Off to the side again, Idalia was picking some of the flowers growing near the wall now “Have I ever told you that I like the color Lilac?” she said picking a yellow flower “There aren’t any Lilac flowers over here, I just thought I’d mention it” she called over.

The zombies bared their black, fiery fangs again. Thankfully Anastasia had a bit more knowledge of what was about to happen, and she grabbed one of the zombies and pushed it back onto the ground, but the other one still managed to bite her. She cried out in pain again, then swung her hammer at the zombie that was on the ground, smashing its face, its head becoming a pancake on the ground.

Anastasia realized there was one more zombie that she hadn’t seen before, it was small, almost like a child. That explained why sometimes she felt her legs getting hit. After she realized there was one more, the zombies used their dark fangs again, this time she was too slow to effectively block them, and they bit her. Yet, it seemed Anastasia had reached the peak of her rage, and suddenly she felt her body relax, her mind sharpening, and her vision more focused. The pain subsided slightly, and she swung her hammer at the last large zombie, she hit it in the torso, but it crumpled to the ground anyway, all its bones probably breaking

Lastly, there was the small zombie, it made a small, high pitched grunt and stabbed Anastasia with its dagger. It was small but it hit hard enough to actually puncture Anastasia’s skin. Anastasia growled at the zombie and swung at it. It let out a little yelp and dived away. It was smarter than the others? It got up and inhaled, but Anastasia didn’t really care, she already breathed in the gas. She swung at it again as it was exhaling, but the gas obscured her view and she missed it completely. It’s dagger was still embedded in Anastasia’s leg, so all it could do was punch Anastasia, which did basically nothing. She swung at it again while it was close, but it dodged out of the way again. This thing was REALLY annoying. It then opened its mouth, revealing dark fangs again, and bit Anastasia’s shin. She was quickly running out of stamina, and thanks to gas and strange fangs, her body felt like it was melting. Remembering she had a potion that temporarily strengthened one's resolve, she quickly fished it out and drank it, immediately feeling quite good again. She swung at the little zombie again, but it was to fast, why was it so fast? And why wouldn’t it just stay still?? It inhaled again, but once again, Anastasia didn’t really care and swung at it again. This time she hit, she hit the top of its head, and a bunch of sickening cracks could be heard. The zombie got even shorter by about half a foot, hobbled around for a bit, then fell to the ground.

“Oh, you got all of them. I thought you’d have re-killed them all a bit quicker.” Idalia called from near an unbroken section of the wall.

Anastasia said nothing, looting the corpses of anything that seemed to be of value, and even things that didn’t. Most had armor and weapons that weren’t useable, but she took the axe of the one that hit her first. Another had a gunblade on its back, but had used it’s fists instead. Which was quite a good thing. Another had armor that actually looked like it was in one piece. Equipping her new gear, she walked over to Idalia, taking out the bottle with her blood in it and taking a big swig. Once she reached Idalia, she looked down at her, her face a mix between pure rage and disappointment. Raising her hand, she slapped Idalia in the face. Hard.

Idalia fell to the ground on contact and rolled over once, then just stayed on the ground for a few minutes without moving at all. Before Idalia could get up, Anastasia kicked her in the gut, though maybe not quite as hard as she could, but still not softly, the impact sending her flying into the wall, and bouncing off of it with a sickening “thud”, after which she fell to the ground and rolled back towards Anastasia, coming to rest at her feet, flat on the stomach. “There, now you have an idea of how much pain I was, and still am, in.”

Idalia spoke into the ground, muffling her voice slightly “I’m glad you’re feeling better, and now that you’re done beating on me, we should probably start looking for your employer.” she said, grabbing Anastasia by the sleeve and starting to pull herself up to her feet, shakily, her breathing ragged from the kick to her stomach.

“I’m not.” Anastasia said flatly, she then sighed. “Please, just don’t do that again. Let’s see if anyone of these people know where to find him.” She then walked towards the human army, and would ask around to see if anyone knew where her employer could be.

[lilbooth]

Well Fuck. Said Cee Cee internally. That hadn't gone exactly as planned but the creature seemed to have taken quite a beating from the building toppling down on top of it. She loaded another shot and sighted in the ballista. She aimed for the head, seeing as it was the most intact piece of the skeleton left. Taking into account where her last shot had landed she aimed accordingly and let lose the next powerful bolt.

The giant skeleton fell quickly after her next shot and Cee Cee was nothing short of astonished. WIth her main target defeated Cee Cee whistled for Magni and they rode back to front. Providing assistance to the guards or Barton Knights, whomever was closer.

[KnightVanilla]

After the last of the skeletons were felled by her crossbow, Caelic couldn't help but chuckle at her victory until to her dismay she felt an off sensation throughout her spine and within moments she was floating... Floating?! No she was falling and only realized it as she looked out the window to see everything around her move towards the beast and then... nothing.

Nothingness became a lots of noises... loud noises... "God can't I sle- aaaagh fuck..." The pain started to come to her and she regretfully opened her eyes to see the chaos around her. Struggling to survive, Caelic could only pull herself out of the rubble as she struggled to reach the knights fighting off the waves of undead. "H-help..." She clung to her cross bow attempting to get to some security so she could survive this battle.

[Mark3000]

Lilith gave the Owner a nod as she accepted the rope. Like everything else in the inn, it seemed to be made with this strange black material. It wasn't even braided, but it looked strong enough to do the job.

As she reached a cross roads, she noticed a black spire eerily similar to the one she'd tried to investigate the day before. Immediately her mind snapped to her battle with the Insectoid. Shaking the bad memories out of her head, she remained focused on her current job, catching or subduing a Depth Lurker. With a deep sigh, she looked to the mountain and then the forest. Nodding to herself, Lilith decided to travel through the Black Forest around the mountains. There would be ample places to hide if trouble arrived. She would have to remain fresh for the task ahead. Stealthy, Lilith would make her way though the forest until she reached her destination. Once there, she would start her search for bait. Hopefully this plan would work. If not, Lilith might have to rely on her last resort...

[RandomRoninKitten]

Weather update:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

A sandstorm begins to pick up as far as the eye can see. When the kicked up sand makes contact with your skin, it feels like razors are being sadistically dragged across your body. To make matters worse, visibility progressively drops towards zero as the clouds of sand in the harsh winds grow more violent.

1d10(5) for sandstorm strength.

Amun Khufu/MrBlah

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Every individual hair on his body raised at the sight of his opponent, as Amun's worst fears were confirmed. The very same being that defeated the powerful knight that was Sir Cole... the very powerful monster that orchestrated this whole event was none other than the head honcho of the masked men. Amun gulped. This... this was it. He knew what he was in for when he stepped into the building. Maybe he'd been optimistic, but... there was truly no going back. Thankfully, he had some time to prepare. Maybe he could set a trap or -

His head snapped to the side, body comically jumping a bit at the appearance of the little girl. "Shh! Shhh!" As she was speaking, he hurriedly tried to shush her, even going so far as to wave a hand for her to stop. "Stop! If you talk so loudly, it's gonna hear..." Amun trailed off, his pointing finger falling limp at the sound of growling. He turned his head...

The monster had apparently noticed the both of them, and was on its way there. The ground shook from the revving of its weapon. Its slow and measured steps... all in all, the intentions of the masked monster was very much apparent. Amun really only had one complaint to mutter. "God... this is why I hate kids." Amun quickly spun around to the child, getting down on one knee and addressing her, his face full of alarm and panic.

"Listen to me. We're going to run, alright? We're going to run back and then you go into that door there," Amun pointed to the closet Lisette was hiding in, "with a friend of mine. As quickly and silently as you can, close the door and don't open it until someone comes to rescue you both, okay?" He closed the door, took the girl's hand, and ran halfway back to Lisette's closet. Stopping midway, he gestured for her to keep running to the door. "I'll distract him for now, just go and hide!" Was the hurried explanation Amun offered as he kicked a door to make some noise, and also provide another escape route if he's charged.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The girl wordlessly hurried into the closet, crying, and slams the door behind her as instructed, however, after Amun kicks the other closet door, all the creature does is look out through the doorway, then shut the door back instead of bothering to walk back out and chase anyone. Even from outside the control room, Amun could hear the creature heading back to the control panel and going back to work. The city of Cielo then shifted again, and began descending a bit faster, though still not at high speed.

Luckily, Amun could get back into the room, as it has no lock.

Amun is inside, and therefor is not hurt by the Sandstorm.

Lilith/Mark3000

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Lilith gave the Owner a nod as she accepted the rope. Like everything else in the inn, it seemed to be made with this strange black material. It wasn't even braided, but it looked strong enough to do the job.

As she reached a cross roads, she noticed a black spire eerily similar to the one she'd tried to investigate the day before. Immediately her mind snapped to her battle with the Insectoid. Shaking the bad memories out of her head, she remained focused on her current job, catching or subduing a Depth Lurker. With a deep sigh, she looked to the mountain and then the forest. Nodding to herself, Lilith decided to travel through the Black Forest around the mountains. There would be ample places to hide if trouble arrived. She would have to remain fresh for the task ahead. Stealthy, Lilith would make her way though the forest until she reached her destination. Once there, she would start her search for bait. Hopefully this plan would work. If not, Lilith might have to rely on her last resort...

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As Lilith enters the Black Forest, she finds that, just as every time before, all of the trees are black with glowing blue crevices. The dense forest blocks Lilith's view with the trees, however, the darkness doesn't bother her, and in fact, she finds it even easier to see in the the darkness of the forest.

Lilith manages to make it roughly two miles in the Dark Forest before seeing a very small pond up ahead, and further, sees a girl sitting in the pond, seemingly relaxing.



The girl has a pair of horns on her head, was leaning against a tree with her lower body in the pond, wearing a black two piece swimsuit, with a hoodie over it. Next to her, was her clothes and some armor, along with a pair of black spears. Upon closer inspection, she seemed to be sleeping.

Lilith is not hurt by Sandstorm

Caelic/KnightVanilla

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

After the last of the skeletons were felled by her crossbow, Caelic couldn't help but chuckle at her victory until to her dismay she felt an off sensation throughout her spine and within moments she was floating... Floating?! No she was falling and only realized it as she looked out the window to see everything around her move towards the beast and then... nothing.

Nothingness became a lots of noises... loud noises... "God can't I sle- aaaagh fuck..." The pain started to come to her and she regretfully opened her eyes to see the chaos around her. Struggling to survive, Caelic could only pull herself out of the rubble as she struggled to reach the knights fighting off the waves of undead. "H-help..." She clung to her cross bow attempting to get to some security so she could survive this battle.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As Caelic approached the squad of Monsteropolis Knights, a girl in armor, resembling that of the knights which showed up to help protect Monsteropolis, but also riding an Owlbear, arrived before her. She noticed her as she approached, however, their attention was quickly drawn to the three approaching glowing skeletons, with scarfs, large swords, and wooden shields, arrows protruding from their back. As they approached, they batted aside several knights, with inhuman strength. They roared, then spoke in a rasp which sounded as though it came from Caelic's own head, "You cannot stop death, all your base are belong to our master.", they came into medium range, with the Monsteropolis Knights attempting to fight them back.

Caelic takes 1 damage from Sandstorm

CeeCee/Lilbooth

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Well Fuck. Said Cee Cee internally. That hadn't gone exactly as planned but the creature seemed to have taken quite a beating from the building toppling down on top of it. She loaded another shot and sighted in the ballista. She aimed for the head, seeing as it was the most intact piece of the skeleton left. Taking into account where her last shot had landed she aimed accordingly and let lose the next powerful bolt.

The giant skeleton fell quickly after her next shot and Cee Cee was nothing short of astonished. WIth her main target defeated Cee Cee whistled for Magni and they rode back to front. Providing assistance to the guards or Barton Knights, whomever was closer.

Over the city walls, CeeCee could see the city of Cielo slowly approaching from the skies, maintaining a height of many miles up in the air.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

CeeCee chose to move to the Monsteropolis Guard and assist them. From her new position, she could see a pale-skinned girl with two horns on her head, one blue eye, and one red eye limping over to them as well, calling out "H-help..." as she drew closer, however, shortly after she arrives, three more skeletons, these glowing purple and wearing a heavy scarf, with a large metal sword and a wooden shield. The creatures began batting some of the knights aside with inhuman strength, and spoke in a whisper that sounded as though it were coming from CeeCee's own head "You cannot stop death, all your base are belong to our master." they came into medium range, with the Monsteropolis Knights attempting to fight them back.

The skeletons began drawing near CeeCee and the horned girl near her, while over the city walls, CeeCee could see the city of Cielo slowly approaching from the skies, maintaining a height of many miles up in the air.

CeeCee is not hurt by Sandstorm

Anastasia Ursa/LittleManKitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

(Warning: Big wall of text)
Anastasia heard of necromancy, but always thought it was a myth, after all, all kinds of magic were just rumors. Until now apparently, who knew? Anastasia just shook her head at Idalia’s words. “I don’t even know what to say at this point… Let’s just go find my employer. Anastasia jogged towards the undead horde leisurely, not wanting to waste precious energy. It didn't seem like Idalia was in much of a hurry anyway either. Upon getting close to the hoard, Anastasia noted the presence of heavily armored vehicles, they were very rare back in Azraq, and almost all of the ones that did come around Azraq were from Fero. The amount of armored vehicles here showed that this army meant business in defeating the undead threat. Getting into attacking range of a small group of zombies that looked like they used to be fairly reasonably armed soldiers, Anastasia almost didn’t realize what Idalia meant by her words till she was already on a tree, content with letting Anastasia do all the work. “What the fuck Idalia? Get down from there an help me!” It was already clear that Idalia had no intention of doing it, and the group of zombies had already noticed her. Looks like she had to deal with them before she could do anything about Idalia.

“But, I’m not hungry. You can handle it, it’ll be fun, trust me!” she called back to Anastasia, smiling at her innocently.

“I don’t care about fun, I care about winning, and you’re making this a lot harder than it needs to be!” After saying that, Anastasia charged the group wildey, aiming for the closest one, but lost her balance and ended up swinging her hammer straight into the ground next to the zombie. As she struggled to heft her hammer back into striking position, all of them hit, struck, stabbed, and punched her with their weapons and in one case, fist. Only one of them actually did any damage however, the one with a large battleaxe, which actually managed to pierce her skin enough to where she could feel it. Letting out an angered roar, she swung at the zombie she was aiming for before, this time hitting it clean in the head, its head flying straight off into the ground. The zombie stumbled around for a few more moments before falling.

During the struggle, Idalia piped up again “Hey, I found a four-leaf clover! Do you know how rare these are?” she called over to her, seemingly oblivious of the battle Anastasia was fighting.

“Fuck you Idalia, as soon as I’m done with these bastards I’ll shove your face in the ground to see all the clovers you want!” As she was talking, the zombies did something peculiar, black fangs suddenly jutted out from their mouths, a feeling of dread suddenly washing over Anastasia, suddenly, quicker than any walking pile of rotten flesh has the right to go, they all bit into Anastasia at once, she let out a surprised cry of agony but managed to push them all off, her inside feeling like they were on fire. She coughed up some blood. ‘What did they do?” She thought to herself. The pain quickly turned to rage though, adrenaline coursed through her veins. Letting her anger take a hold of her, she shouted “Fuck you!” To the nearest zombie and swung her hammer into its side as hard as she could. Apparently, she didn’t realize her own strength. As soon as her hammer made contact with the zombie, a loud crack sounded through the area, as if a small lightning bolt struck, and the zombie went, quite literally, flying through the air, over the walls of the city. Anastasia exhaled, and tried to calm herself down, her arms aching from the force of the hit.

Idalia watches the Zombie fly over the wall and comments from several yards away “If you shove my face in the ground, I wouldn’t be able to see the clovers, though… you know?” just barely loud enough for Anastasia to hear.

“Are you TRYING to be annoying? Or does it just come naturally?” Anastasia shouted at Idalia.Turns out the zombies had another trick up their sleeves as well, they all breathed in, then let out a large plum of green gas at Anastasia. Anastasia quickly held her breath and covered her mouth. The gas stung her skin, but it disappeared quickly, and she took a deep breath. She felt fine, so it seemed like the breath didn’t do what it was supposed to. After the gas disappeared, she hefted her hammer up and hit another zombie in the head, this time its head just caved in on itself and the zombie immediately feel to the ground.

Idalia picked a flower near the tree she was in and twirled it in her hand while she called over again “You know, that gas smells awful. We should probably take showers when we get back. You’ll probably smell like you got sprayed by a Dire Skunk.” she said, smelling the flower she had picked.

Anastasia said nothing to Idalia this time, too angry at her to make any coherent come back. The remaining zombies inhaled again, and Anastasia immediately held her breath in preparation. However, the preemptive planning seems to have worked against her, and she had to take a deep breath right before the gas disappeared, her throat immediately seemed to catch on fire, and she coughed heavily, blood spurting out. Anastasia focuses her attention on the one that she thinked breathed last, and swung her hammer upwards, hitting its jaw, making its head fly off. Its head landed next to the other one, and it crumpled to the ground. She could feel the gas slowly eat away at her insides, it was quite agonizing.

Off to the side again, Idalia was picking some of the flowers growing near the wall now “Have I ever told you that I like the color Lilac?” she said picking a yellow flower “There aren’t any Lilac flowers over here, I just thought I’d mention it” she called over.

The zombies bared their black, fiery fangs again. Thankfully Anastasia had a bit more knowledge of what was about to happen, and she grabbed one of the zombies and pushed it back onto the ground, but the other one still managed to bite her. She cried out in pain again, then swung her hammer at the zombie that was on the ground, smashing its face, its head becoming a pancake on the ground.

Anastasia realized there was one more zombie that she hadn’t seen before, it was small, almost like a child. That explained why sometimes she felt her legs getting hit. After she realized there was one more, the zombies used their dark fangs again, this time she was too slow to effectively block them, and they bit her. Yet, it seemed Anastasia had reached the peak of her rage, and suddenly she felt her body relax, her mind sharpening, and her vision more focused. The pain subsided slightly, and she swung her hammer at the last large zombie, she hit it in the torso, but it crumpled to the ground anyway, all its bones probably breaking

Lastly, there was the small zombie, it made a small, high pitched grunt and stabbed Anastasia with its dagger. It was small but it hit hard enough to actually puncture Anastasia’s skin. Anastasia growled at the zombie and swung at it. It let out a little yelp and dived away. It was smarter than the others? It got up and inhaled, but Anastasia didn’t really care, she already breathed in the gas. She swung at it again as it was exhaling, but the gas obscured her view and she missed it completely. It’s dagger was still embedded in Anastasia’s leg, so all it could do was punch Anastasia, which did basically nothing. She swung at it again while it was close, but it dodged out of the way again. This thing was REALLY annoying. It then opened its mouth, revealing dark fangs again, and bit Anastasia’s shin. She was quickly running out of stamina, and thanks to gas and strange fangs, her body felt like it was melting. Remembering she had a potion that temporarily strengthened one's resolve, she quickly fished it out and drank it, immediately feeling quite good again. She swung at the little zombie again, but it was to fast, why was it so fast? And why wouldn’t it just stay still?? It inhaled again, but once again, Anastasia didn’t really care and swung at it again. This time she hit, she hit the top of its head, and a bunch of sickening cracks could be heard. The zombie got even shorter by about half a foot, hobbled around for a bit, then fell to the ground.

“Oh, you got all of them. I thought you’d have re-killed them all a bit quicker.” Idalia called from near an unbroken section of the wall.

Anastasia said nothing, looting the corpses of anything that seemed to be of value, and even things that didn’t. Most had armor and weapons that weren’t useable, but she took the axe of the one that hit her first. Another had a gunblade on its back, but had used it’s fists instead. Which was quite a good thing. Another had armor that actually looked like it was in one piece. Equipping her new gear, she walked over to Idalia, taking out the bottle with her blood in it and taking a big swig. Once she reached Idalia, she looked down at her, her face a mix between pure rage and disappointment. Raising her hand, she slapped Idalia in the face. Hard.

Idalia fell to the ground on contact and rolled over once, then just stayed on the ground for a few minutes without moving at all. Before Idalia could get up, Anastasia kicked her in the gut, though maybe not quite as hard as she could, but still not softly, the impact sending her flying into the wall, and bouncing off of it with a sickening “thud”, after which she fell to the ground and rolled back towards Anastasia, coming to rest at her feet, flat on the stomach. “There, now you have an idea of how much pain I was, and still am, in.”

Idalia spoke into the ground, muffling her voice slightly “I’m glad you’re feeling better, and now that you’re done beating on me, we should probably start looking for your employer.” she said, grabbing Anastasia by the sleeve and starting to pull herself up to her feet, shakily, her breathing ragged from the kick to her stomach.

“I’m not.” Anastasia said flatly, she then sighed. “Please, just don’t do that again. Let’s see if anyone of these people know where to find him.” She then walked towards the human army, and would ask around to see if anyone knew where her employer could be.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Idalia held onto Anastasia's arm to help herself walk as she tried to catch her wind again, keeping pace despite having the wind knocked out of her, and following Anastasia as she went from place to place, looking for her employer.

After asking numerous people around the city, they came to a group of six guards, protecting the entrance to a large tower. "Halt, who goes there? This tower is owned by D. Farkwad, and he requires prior notice before receiving visitors." he said.

As they stood before the tower, and after they had finished speaking, Anastasia could notice that these guards were wearing a sky blue variant of the Monsteropolis Guard armor, and therefor weren't actually city guards, but personal guards. Clinging to Anastasia's sleeve, Idalia whispered to her "This is probably his tower... nobody else in Monsteropolis places this much importance on themselves." she then coughed, holding her stomach and hunching over. The guards continued eyeing them suspiciously, seemingly unaware that the city had fallen into chaos.

Anastasia is not hurt by Sandstorm

Ophelia/MiscChaos

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Well, she supposes she shouldn't be surprised this "town" was utterly worthless when it came to equipment. The entire thing is made of scrap and their guards are equipped with scrap so only having scrap should have been a foregone conclusion. At the very least, she's fairly sure she can take the scrap items she found apart and make rudimentary throwing knives out of that. While the thought is fresh in her mind, she gives it a go, taking apart the items she just got and her old hidden blade and trying to make her desired weapons. Only, she goes wrong somewhere. Then goes even more wrong to the point where making a weapon is inadvisable with what she ended up with. She can maybe make a bit of armor with the pieces instead so she does that. The result isn't as all covering as her Shroud, but it's just as sturdy and weighs less. It might also help with seeming less of a threat if so desired due to the bared midriff of it all. Well... the new armor isn't terrible and her old armor has already failed her once against her personal assignment. She almost strips to put the armor on right where she stands, but remembers her Lady's advice to stay as inconspicuous as possible. Being naked in the street doesn't seem to fall within those parameters so she finds somewhere out of the way to remove her Shroud and equip the Salvaged Armor instead, making sure to place her mask back on her face when she's done.

Coming out of her alley, she decides it's time to leave town, but keeps getting thrown off by how... kind? Is that the word she's looking for? She doesn't use it often so she doesn't know. Anyways, not a single townsperson seems hostile to her. Even if the mask she wears hides her race, the mask itself usually draws distrust. She's unsure if this is genuine or the set up for an even more harsh trap later. Probably a good thing thing she doesn't intend to be around long enough to find out. With her wounds recovered (mostly seeing as her face is still pretty tender. Her back also throbs painfully on occasion) and her search complete, she decides it's time to resume her Lady's assignment. She noticed her own personal assignment leaving town, but she still doesn't have a way to destroy them so they will have to wait. Her target is still in the Colosseum of Fools as far as she's aware, so that's where she's headed. Destination locked, she moves out.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As Ophelia leaves the city, the gate guards wave to her and thank her for her visit, and encourage her to visit again, and wish her luck on her journey.

Her path to the Colosseum takes Ophelia straight towards Monsteropolis. This is when she sees armies of undead attacking the city, with part of the wall broken down. Inside the city, she sees a giant skeleton destroyed by a Ballista shot, another giant skeleton approaching the city with the army.

Ophelia, from her current position, could also see the Spectross girl from before fighting skeletons, while her companion watches, and picks flowers, seemingly choosing not to help. The giant skeleton, however, blocks her view of the two when it passes a decent distance in front of her while approaching the city, however, high up in the sky, she could also see the flying city of Cielo flying towards Monsteropolis from several miles off to her left.

Ophelia is not hurt by Sandstorm

[Mark3000]

Lilith always found the trees of the forest calming. She brushed her hand close to one of the blue crevices as she walks through the forest. The young Nomad let her eyes grow accustom to the darkness of the forest. What was starting to get annoy was the sudden sandstorm.

It wasn't long until she happened upon a strange sight. A woman with horns was just relaxing in a small pond. Was she a Nomad? A Were-beast or something else? Her gear set aside by the pond. With the woman asleep by the pond, it would be easy to just take the gear and leave.

Just as she reaches for the spear, Lilith pulls her hand back. No matter how tough things got, Lilith just couldn't resort to theft. Besides, what she need now wasn't equipment but ... allies.

Lilith gave the small pond a quick look before approaching the woman. She gives the tree a tap trying to gently wake her. "I don't think it's a great idea to fall asleep outside in a Sandstorm." She said hoping to get the woman's attention.

[mrblah]

"Ah, so that didn't work." Was the first thought Amun had, as the tension high situation halted thanks to the retreating monster who went back into the command room. Yeah... he was kind of hoping it wouldn't see logic and just focus on eliminating him, but that clearly wasn't the case. "Well, round two then." The Were-beast rushed back to the command room's door and slipped in after taking a moment to ascertain the creature's position. Or rather; that it wasn't waiting on the other side of the door, ready to bisect him. It wasn't.

He looked around the command room for ideas, and hesitantly moved closer to the creature, his feet stepping softly on the surface of the floor. He needed space to move. He needed a little time to plan. He needed its attention. He needed to NOT fight it... wait, not fight it? "H-hey, y... you there! ..."

An idea came to Amun, and he knew he might as well try it. Nothing to lose, right? He steeled his nerves, drawing on all of his many years spent manipulating words and acting to fool others. "You... you haven't said a word of your scheme... no, you haven't said a word at all. I'm inclined to believe you have intelligence based on how coordinated your plan was, yet nothing else seems to suggest that. Even so, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt as I ask... why have you come here?! Why have so many died for what seems to be nothing but purposeless chaos?! Was it all just on a whim? Are you nothing but a terrorist with no manner of thought or goal?!"

Amun realized that he didn't need to even combat the threat. He just needed to distract it long enough for the others to appear. To help his efforts, he took a single stomp forward with a feigned angry expression. "Answer me!"

[Littlemankitten]

Anastasia said nothing to Idalia as they tried to find her employer. When she did talk to other's it was in curt replies. Upon reaching the tower, she sighed in both relief and annoyance. It seems the domain of what is probably her employer is unharmed. But now she had to talk to some bodyguards, and right now she wasn't really in the mood to talk. Placing her hand on Idalia's back as she hunched over, Anastasia replied to the guards. "I believe this is the residence of my employer for a job I took. I simply wished to make sure that they were alright until this invasion has been resolved, that way I can still be paid once the job is complete... This is my companion, I wont be going anywhere without her." She looked at Idalia, then gave the guards a look of 'I don't really want to be here, but I feel like I have to.'

[MiscChaos]

Ophelia has to resist the urge to growl as she sees the Barbarian Whore and Wire Bitch again so soon. No need to give her position away after all. She briefly contemplates interfering in the fight to give the skeletons a better shot at taking her nemesis down, but disregards it because of the Wire Bitch. She's the bigger threat as far as Ophelia is concerned and she's fresh since she hasn't been in combat. It just wouldn't be wise to engage right now, especially with this sandstorm coming out of nowhere. The matter is taken out of her hands anyway when a... is that a giant fucking skeleton? She doesn't know what the hell is going on in Monsteropolis, but as it has nothing to do with her mission she figures it's not her problem. She does find herself morbidly curious about the position of Cielo though. It may just be her, she never cared to notice such things before unless an assignment took her to the flying city, but it seems lower than it should be. Still not her problem, it could be that they're making a landing soon to resupply or some such thing.

Her objective is the Colosseum of Fools so she will continue making her way there. She has a brief thought that she should find shelter to keep out of the sandstorm, but she wasted enough time recovering from her injuries yesterday. So she presses on.