"One moment."
I pause in the silence, letting my superior ears listen for anything unusual.
But even if everything seems fine after that pause I'll sweep a tongue of flame along the stone walltop, the far side of the wall, and the ground a short distance beyond it, in case of things waiting in ambush in the wall's blind spot, and then spread my flames out in a bit of a dome over the area we're going to climb over, making sure that the entire area is extremely well lit. I'm trying to retain as much of my flame as I can, despite my already large starting amount, and I'll enjoy any growth of flame from the security sweep. but naturally I'll be taking all of it when I move the flame onwards so there won't be lingering flames that might burn Vind or grow outside my influence.
You don't hear anything. There isn't even any wind around here, beyond the distortions in the air your giant fireball is causing. It's just your and the human's breathing. Maybe if Ike was here he'd be able to tell you more about what's beyond the wall.
You send down some fire (maybe a bit too much fire) to sweep the wall and the area beyond it. Vind moves away from the wall and removes a knife from his belt. Probably getting ready for trouble.
As you sweep the area beyond the wall, there is a high pitched warbling cry that ends in a whistle. You've heard similar calls during your nights on this world, but this one seems a bit off, distorted and out of tune. You hear it quickly move away, footsteps lightly impacting the ground as it jumps away and soon you can hear it no more.
"Cacolopes. Ambushers. Quick jump. Bad bite. Annoying scream." Vind says as he puts his knife back into his belt.
Seeing that you can no longer hear anything beyond the wall, you assume that whatever was there is gone or dead. So you reposition your fire into a defensive dome around your crossing point.
"They're usually pack hunters. Should move inside before more come." he adds as he once more gets in position to help you get over the wall.
"Okay."
I then accept Vind's help getting up the wall, and pause at the top to survey what I see and to help him up too after I've leaned forward with an arm, a leg, and a tail (two tails on the far side) on each side of the wall to stabilize myself.
Once we're both safely on the other side, I'll return my flames to being an overhead sphere, but I'll flatten it a bit and spread it out a little so that we ourselves shouldn't be casting any shadow at all, since we're directly under a wide light source.
You climb on the wall, feeling it still warm from your flames' passing and take a look around. The area is clear. And a bit burnt, smoke still rising from the extinguished flames.
It looks like people had various things either on the back of their houses or on the wall itself. Small gardens, clotheslines, outhouses, little fences, storage cabinets... The creature you scared away was probably somewhere among them. Many of them were composed of wood, mostly in the form of smaller or larger branches. They haven't fared very well after your firesweep. Hopefully they won't miss those very much. And if they do, well... you have more important things to deal with.
You run your hand over the wall once more to make sure it's not too hot for humans and then help Vind up, taking his torch first. He gets down and gets his knife ready again. You reposition your flames above you and get ready to follow him.
"Vind, you should know, my eyesight isn't great, but my hearing is very good, if I suddenly stop and hold a closed fist in the air, please stop moving and be totally silent, and watch my ears. whatever direction they're pointing, I heard something from. Anyway, lead on."He nods and starts moving, trying to remain as silent as he can and you try to follow his example.
Vind moves straight towards one of the nearby houses, a small shack made out of stone and small wooden branches. You follow him, slowly stepping through the burnt remains of the few things that were apparently outside his house, breaking some of them with the sound of cracking wood. He glances at you from time to time.
He stabs his torch to the ground, leaving it outside the house before going in. The inside is really sparse. Just a bed, a table and a few chests and storage cabinets. You saw a few cooking implements still intact outside. He probably didn't store everything he had in here.
After some searching, Vind exchanges his knife for two small knives and a large knife.
"I tried to fight one of the dark ones. They are tough." he whispers.
Ah, so that probably explains the blood on him, it was from his fight. Unless... it's from whoever was with him at the time...
"I'll injure them if I can't kill them. Slow them down. Let you burn them."He then retrieves his bow, puts it between his legs and begins stringing it. Finally, he gets a quiver filled with a good number of arrows.
He gets an arrow out and puts between his fingers, so that he can get it ready to fire quickly. He looks ready.
"So?" he asks, looking at you.
Campaign, Ike!
<Ike, ever since I started manipulating fire around here, I felt like I was being watched. I brought my ball of flame from the village to me, intensifying the light around me by a lot, and that feeling grew stronger, but after a bit, it completely disappeared. The shadows here are a little too dark too. Also, I smell that jumping quadruped thing around here. I'm afraid if you bring a mob of people here, they're going to all die. I'm being careful and I'll keep you updated.>
<But if I didn't take them along it'd break their poor hearts. Look at them, so wonderfully spirited. Also, I think that was somebody's scrying spell wearing off. Probably nothing to worry about right up until the point the black dragons start showing up in the sky and disgorging wizards in black to take you into custody.>
Listen for trouble. Be the General of the People I was always meant to be! Flank that village and flank it good.
You leave Theri to help take care of the wounded and lead your group of volunteers around the village, to the east entrance. You guess that at least if everything goes south, you'd at least be able to run away and escape towards the direction you were originally going towards. While you make your way there, you hear a cry of one of those four legged jumping creatures coming from where Irine's giant fireball is floating over, almost on the opposite side of the town. Good. If she attracts their attention, that should make your job easier.
As mentioned before, the village stretches along the road, remaining close to it. It starts with one or two buildings per street and goes all the way to five at its thickest point. Maybe 50 buildings total, more or less, about 16 streets total. Probably less, since those two large ones in the middle should take up the space of more than one building.
You slowly approach the open gates (more like two wooden fence pieces on hinges), close your eyes and listen and smell for trouble. Let's
see smell... Human smells, cow smells, jumping four legged thing smells... Human smells are more prominent, which seems natural. None of the non-human smells smell very fresh though, unless you count cat smell and rodent smell. Maybe whatever affected those creatures also helps mask their scent.
Sound says... muffled voices which stop almost immediately. Must be scared villagers, in a nearby building, two streets forward and then right. Might be more hiding nearby. Should be able to smell them if you get closer. There's also footsteps. Three streets away to the left, two pairs, one much slower than the other. Maybe another one five streets away? Even in this quiet it's hard to make out. And there's also that damn thing you can't quite hear but more feel, that pressure in your ears that returns just as you are about to forget it, that annoying background noise-
"It looks fine." the young man (you've heard the others call him Mios) tells you as he approaches you.
"We should get in, start looking for people and tell them it's safe to leave. Before more come."Some of the other men don't share his eagerness. Maybe they can subconsciously feel that damn noise, even if they can't hear it, and it's affecting them somehow. Maybe they smell the blood of other humans and its triggering some primal fight or flight response. Or maybe it's the half-eaten corpse lying in the middle of the road in a puddle of blood, just a street away from where you are.
Kakaralan
"Innocent villagers! Point me in the direction of your troubles and I shall solve them with an excessively healthy dose of vitamins and minerals and orangeness! AT SUPERSONIC VELOCITY!"
Get people to guide me to things that need terminal carrotification!
One of the villagers hesitantly points towards the village. You decide to follow Ike, since he's heading there anyway.
You manage to hold your vegetable in. For now.
((Was busy with a major test over the weekend, and have been trying to catch up with certain things in life. Sorry! Thankfully, I'll have a lot more time in the coming month.))
Zechariah walked slowly and looked around. He felt uneasy, a sense of uncomfortable familiarity present for him about the situation.
Shadows. Monsters. Deformed, tar-covered creatures. Why does this sound so much like we're about to fight the Shadows I fought before in the Medium? Could this multiverse have its own versions of the Shadows, or are they the same type?
With the sunlight quickly fading beyond the horizon, he was worried that he wouldn't have much in the way of offensive talent, seeing as how his hardlight abilities relied on natural light. Even if the flames provided enough light to muster a defense, his powers regarding light seemed to be unstable when he tried to use his staff earlier. Perhaps it'd be safer to rely on his shadow manipulation abilities for now.
Stay close to the others for now if Irine decided to go alone with the guide. Do a little test with my shadow powers: form a tendril of shadows and wrap it around my own hand. Does it hurt me to use my power? Am I able to do it quickly and without much difficulty? If not, then look for a natural light source nearby and test out my hardlight powers as well. If there's no light, then just wait until I can find one.
You wave your staff and grab some of the nearby shadows. It doesn't really hurt you. In fact, it feels easy. Far too easy, even easier than it when you tested it the day before yesterday. When you put it close to your body, it feels like the shadow wants to be as close to you as possible, clinging to your body. And it's strong enough that it trying to do so is quite noticeable. It's not strong enough to hurt you, not with the amount of strength you're using, but... Well, you think it might be best to be very careful if you try to restrain someone with it, lest you end up strangling them. You think you can feel it vibrating slightly, moving around as if it's filled with hundreds of worms. It's almost as if something is making it agitated. Even the small amount of darkness dancing inside your staff seems more active than usual.
When one of the villagers notices you using your ability, he gets quite scared and starts warning everyone about "black magic". Everyone else shares his concern once they notice you and get ready to fight or flee. Ike quickly defuses the situation by telling them it's not black magic, merely an illusion he might use to hide people, but only as a last resort. The villagers don't look convinced. You can see them keeping an eye on you, casting you sidelong glances.
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1151549 times)