Feychild

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“I never thought I would say this, but I actually miss Serphia…a bit”

“I don’t.” Liaena said decisively, still glowering down the corridor where the other two sentinels had run off again. The look she was giving their departed backsides strongly implied that should the pair come back without Kathlin and Liam, another cave-in could be imminent. Lack of potions not withstanding.

“You…wouldn’t happen to know….where the nearest exit is?”

Ceasing with the death glare momentarily, Liaena turned around in a slow circle to give the matter some serious thought as she surveyed their surroundings. The grumpy noise the girl produced indicated she had a similarly negative view of the situation. “Hmn. No. Well. Maybe.”

“…….”

“There’s a harbour down here somewhere. That’s probably the closest way out, given how deep we are” Liaena said after a long pause where she chewed thoughtfully on her upper lip. “There was a lift to it, till I blew it up. There are big, brass doors that look….”

Here followed a moment where Liaena tried to sketch the shapes of the brass etchings in the air in front of her, without much success. “….just really big, brass doors with engravings on them. If we find a set of those, we can get down to the dock. And you know…steal a ship.”

“If we’re not back by morning, Thea’ll send someone to help…Right?” Bella piped up from her shoulder. Liaena shook her head slightly, causing a squawk as the girl ducked. “Eh, Doubt it…anyway, that’s beside the point. If the King is visiting this morning, we have to get back before then”

“I got some good photos” Bella said smugly as she raised up the piece of gnomish tech in one hand. “Cultists. Cultists getting beaten. That knight…thing. Oh, and that elf. He was kinda cute”

“….”

“I swear Syn’dial, next time your pets run off, you can get them back!”

Liaena was spared from having to respond to that final comment from Bella, with Aleena and Lithriell’s return. The two elfs grumbling loudly, Kathlin and Liam were unceremoniously dropped on the ground to scramble to their feet. “Hi, Li”

“Hi” Liaena said distractedly as she turned back to Rithrynn. “Okay, so find the lift shaft. That’s the plan”

“Does the plan allow for being chased by spectres?”

“…find the lift shaft, quickly. That’s the plan” Liaena revised her previous statement slightly as she turned to Rithrynn, making a brief ‘shooing’ motion with her hands. “Cmon, let’s go”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

Haah :P

I have had zero free time since last thursday, which is my general excuse for lack of activity. This also applies to this evening, but I will try and post tomorrow! Really.

Oh yes, I'm getting married in June. Woop woop.

(seriously, it's more trouble than it's worth. Don't ever get engaged)

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

I have also been hit with an unhealthy dose of real life this week, so I have failed to post this evening. Apologies.

In my defence, it was my birthday today. And I had to organise a wedding.

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“STOP IT! RITHRYNN, GO BACK!” Liaena screamed from Rithrynn’s arms. The little girl squirmed ineffectually in the Night Elves firm grip, twisting her head around to crane back down the corridor. “YOU JUST LEFT THEM! THEY WON’T HAVE A CHANCE!”

*

“Did…ah…did they just leave us here?”

Liam gasped as he jogged down the corridor, Alissah bobbing along in the slip stream as he tugged her along after him with one hand.

“…Yup”

“But…they were….here to rescue you!”

“I…guess this sort of counts? ….Maybe?” Kathlin remarked dubiously. A flicker in the torchlight from the wall right behind the priests head made her eyes widen. “Look out!”

Liam twisted around, warding off a spectre with a conjured fistful of Light as the creature hissed and backed off a pace – but only a pace. “They appear to be closing in. Oh dear”

“They do, don’t they”

“You should probably run” Liam made a valiant attempt at sounding authorative, which failed miserably from the tremor in his voice as he shook the conjured orb at the ghasts. “Back, vile creatures! ….I’ll, ah, hold them off”

“What?”

“Go! Save yourself! I’m saying that I’ll stay behind, and fight them!”

Liam hissed furiously at his companion, the priest having gone bright red in the face as she simply raised her eyebrows back at him. “…That sounds like a terrible idea”

“I—“

“I do appreciate the thought though”

“HSSSSSSSSSSKKKKKK!”

Scissor arms whirring, the ghost made a lunge for the pair, only to bounce off a hastily conjured shield by Kathlin as she tugged on his sleeve to start dragging him down the corridor in a run again, Alissah bobbing along. “Cmon, we do need to catch up with Li. Although that’s very sweet”

“….Sweet” Liam muttered. The priest was still rather red, although clearly relieved that his heroic last stand had been spurned as he started to leg it after her, with many glances at the corridor behind him. “Really?”

“Oh, was that demeaning?”

“….a bit”

“Sorry”

*

“STOP! NOW! STOP!” Liaena yelled, battering at Rithrynn with her arms, legs at any part of the Night Elf she could reach. Short of slamming her into the wall repeatedly – which the elf looked as though she was at least considering as a tempting option – there was little that could be done to stop the little girl struggling, not to mention alerting anyone not completely deaf within the castle and possibly the harbour side as well. “YOU – WILL – NOT – JUST – RUN – OFF! I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE WARRIORS!”

With a lot of ineffectual flailing now that the Night Elf was intentionally squeezing her at a very awkward angle, Liaena managed to plant her boot into the Night Elfs upper thigh, tangling her legs with Rithrynns and interrupting the Night Elves stride. As with a stumble, Rithrynn just managed to keep her balance – averting a situation that would doubtless have been very uncomfortable for Liaena as well – Liaena squirmed in her arms to glare up into her face. “I’ll stop it if you go back and GET THEM. You’re lieutenant, aren’t you!? Get two of them—“ here she stabbed a finger at the other Night Elves “--to carry them!”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Move, dammit! Who thought that making this stuff so sticky was a good idea!?”

Liaena thought as she kicked furiously at the remains of the gel around her legs, the damn stuff proving stubbornly resistant to her efforts. “Get moving, you lot, would you! They’ll be after us in a moment!”

“They’ll be here faster if you shout”

Kathlin observed as she bent down to rip strands of the gunk from around the girl’s legs. Liam was straightening up with Alissah floating next to him, apparently unconscious but no longer bleeding profusely. The young man, as usual, looked extremely pale as he glanced down the corridor, the shielding mist dissipating rapidly. “I’m inclined to agree with Rune, for once…who is that?”

“……”

Hiding within Liaena’s collar as the girl suddenly fell silent, Bella reached up cautiously to bring her camera up to focus on the elf stalking towards them.

-click-

“Get yourself and Liam back up the corridor now”
Liaena hissed in a strangled whisper as her hand crept towards her satchel. Kathlin gave her an odd look as she pulled one of Liaena’s arms over her shoulder to try and drag her out of the goop. “Sure. You can come too”

“Go!”

“Can I go with them?” Bella enquired in a nervous high pitched tone as Liaena slid her truesilver blade out of a compartment of the bag. Rithrynn by this point was coming over to investigate, her jaw dropping noticeably as she took in the man before her. “Sher—“

“The game ends here”

“Go fuck yourself”

Liaena spat out as she sliced neatly through both straps on her satchel to free it, twisting her arm around to throw the entire bag through the air to land with a CRASH of breaking glass a few feet in front of Sherpa. There was a moment following where nothing at all seemed to happen, as though everyone there was holding their breath.

-BOOOOOOOOOM-

The explosion that rippled through the corridor was on par, if not greater than the one that had recently occurred with Smokey, as everything dangerous, acidic, explosive or highly flammable inside Liaena’s satchel detonated all at once. Sherpa vanished from view in the blink of an eye as a bright purple ball of fire expanded rapidly to tear into the walls and ceiling of the corridor and sending another volley of broken rock tumbling to the ground to completely block that section of the corridor. The castle groaned audible and the entire reef appeared to tremor slightly under the strain.

For the Night Elves and humans, the explosion seemed just about to tear into the little group when Kathlin flung out her arms and a shimmering shield manifested around them. It immediately flexed and buckled under the force of the blow, on the verge of disappating, before Liam stepped forward to raise a hand and the gold glow redoubled in strength.

“You are a moron!”

Bella hissed into Liaena’s ear nastily before she also added her strength belatedly to the shield that was protecting the group from the horrendous blast. Liam appeared to be muttering a prayer repeatedly as the fires finally shrank and diminished.

Kathlin finally lowered her hand as she stared at the destruction before them. The group were now faced with a corridor yet again piled high with broken rock, the only exit remaining being the one right behind them. “Wow. You really didn’t like him”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“The dart I gave you; now would be a good time!”

“Really!? You think!?” Liaena screamed back in a slightly higher pitched tone than normal as she struggled against the gunk binding her legs to the floor (Hester was screaming bloody murder in her satchel). Concluding that trying to free herself required more time than she had under the circumstances, the girl drew her dart gun instead to try and aim it up at the Death Knight as it clashed against Alissah. Aiming for a chink in the creatures full plate-mail was no easy matter; and it was not helped by the smog impeding her vision.

“Note to self: acquire laser scope”

-SLASH-

“AHHHHHHH!”

Liaena froze in the middle of her random musing, as a severely wounded Alissah landed with a quiet ‘splat’ on the floor next to her, Death Knight looming ominously overhead. “….Oh crap”

“KILL IT!”

Annoying though they might be, Liaena was occasionally forced to accept that Night Elves, even Rithrynn, had their uses. Now was definitely one of those times as an arrow, then a sabre, buried themselves into the chest of the Death Knight. It merely looked annoyed. But then again, it was not looking annoyed at herself or Alissah.

“Please don’t move around! You might make it worse!” Liam cautioned in a terrified whisper as he eased Alissah back towards the wall to shift the rogue away from the pitched battle that was now taking place.

“…Or puncture a lung” Kathlin noted weakly as she eased the ripped edges of leather away from the wound so that she could see the severe injury. Leaning over to hover just within Alissah’s eyeline, the girl bobbed her head at her meekly. “Thank you for the rescue, Ma’am. I’m sure it’s a work in progress”

“I…don’t like my odds with this”

Liaena thought grimly as she again tried to aim the dart gun at the Death Knight through the scrum. Giving up, she twisted the barrel around to eject the dart and vial into her hand, reaching up to shake it within her fist at the Night Elf, who had backed away for a moment to draw her bow again. “RITHRYNN! Stick this in that thing!”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“….Ow”
Liaena shook her head to try clear it of the deafening ringing in her ears as she slowly raised it to look around. Around her, Liam, Kathlin and Alissah was sprawled on the floor in varying states of consciousness. Bella was…

!

A few moments of frantic rummaging on the floor coated in rubble and dust was enough to locate the mini-priestess, Liaena stuffing her back into her pocket as she crawled onto her hands and knees. It only took a glance up and down the corridor to make their dire circumstances clear, as her eyes narrowed in hatred at one of the new arrivals.

“I swear I’ll kill you for this”

Despite the futility of their situation, Sherpa appeared to be no hurry to finish the job; the High Elf Death-Knight not-so-subtly being in full gloat-mode. Liaena crawled over to Alissah to produce a vial and dribble a few drops of liquid into her mouth. The effect was immediate as the assassins eyes shot open; Liaena narrowly escaped being shanked as she held a hand over the womans mouth, before gesturing with her eyes towards the corridor the big Death Knight was looming from. “That way”

“What?”

Liaena shook her head in exasperation at the moment of confusion she invoked in the assassin. “….Oh never mind”

Sliding a small vial out of her sleeve to hold carefully between finger and thumb, Liaena whirled around suddenly to throw it with all her strength against the wall, where it smashed into a thousand pieces. The effect was immediate; with a rapidly expanding balloon of white shimmering smoke blossoming forth, filling up the corridor and rapidly obstructing all visibility in a grey mist. As the first tendrils reached the living White Hand guardsman, the men suddenly broke out in hacking coughs as the horribly corrosive gas invaded their lungs.

“Whhha…?” Liam mumbled groggily as Liaena yanked him up and back against the wall, bedlam rapidly commencing as the Night Elves took advantage of the low visibility and their immunity to the mist. “What happened?”

“We’re leaving. Give Kitty this for the smoke!” Liaena hissed as she thrust a vial at him, the other girl already hacking up her lungs at his feet. “Get up! Death Knight incoming!”

“What?” Liam muttered as Liaena spun around at sudden movement from behind. Automatically bringing up her rifle to defend herself, she fired two gel rounds into the shadow that suddenly loomed from the smog towards them.

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“I think we’re winning!” Bella yelled into Liaena’s ear where she lay prone on the floor. Apparently afforded far more bravado with her reasonably sheltered hiding place in Liaena’s cloak, the little priestess stood on tip toe to peer over at where Sevarian and Serphia were engaged in a very real duel to the death. “That reminds me…wait a sec”

Fishing around inside her robes, Bella finally produced a miniature gnomish camera as she angled the mirror on one side and squinted up at the mayhem and destruction through the small foggy lense. Click. Click.

“…What’re you doing?” Liaena muttered finally as she pushed herself up off the floor to crawl onto her hands and knees. The ghosts that had been screaming at her had abated considerably, but every time a gaseous form caught her eye she had to resist the urge to cringe.

“You ruined my last one” Bella scowled at her, before tilting the camera towards her again to inspect it. “I’m supplementing my allowance with twenty silver per good shot, that’s what I’m doing. Ten for the so-so, if I play my cards right”

“Kitty!” Liam gasped as he darted forward to where Alissah was half leading, half dragging Kathlin towards the door. Pulling one of her arms over his shoulder, the priest took some of the girls weight as he helped Alissah propel her towards the back wall.

“We need to leave now, don’t we? There’ll be reinforcements!” The boy cried as he took a glance behind at the Night Elves, who were laying waste to the room under no uncertain terms. Alissah afforded him a tight nod, before she grabbed Kathlin by the other shoulder and pushed her out of the door.

Bella clutched at Liaena as the girl paused to look around at where Serphia and Sevarian were duelling. “Liii! Let’s just go! You heard what they said!”

“…….”

“….But to try gank the dark mage is so tempting…”

“LI!”

Liaena shook her head, before finally turning to dive out of the wrecked hole that passed as a ‘door’ as another ripple of unholy energy emanated from Sevarians staff. The other three were immediately outside, sheltering against the corridor wall as Alissah reloaded her pistol. “There’s still that death knight following me. He’ll be here soon, I expect”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“…Shoo…Shoo!” Kathlin gasped as she flapped her hands at the wraith clinging to her tightly. The shade emitted a sort of screechy-snarly noise as she batted at it, before sinking its claws deeper into her neck and shoulders. “Ow. Go on, get off. No completed rituals today, thank you”

*

“Who, me!?” Bella squeaked in a tone several steps higher than her usual octave as she tried to bury herself inside Liaena’s pocket. Liaena herself had gone extremely pale and somewhat glassy-eyed as she stared at the hordes of uncontrolled spirits, trying to form words that didn’t seem eager to come any time soon.

Also dangling from Rithrynn’s hands, Liam stiffened his back as he focused on the first wave of ghosts flooding down towards them. “Rest in peace, lost souls”

As the wraiths swooped towards the group, one of them immolated on the spot to leave nothing but a small cloud of mist as the others sped straight for Rithrynn, Sharon and the others. Of the ghast that was gunning for Rithrynn, it crashed into a hastily conjured shield as Liam rattled off frantic prayers under his breath, before also going up in a burst of flames.

“Haah…nice one, Gray. I told you we’d got this!” Bella said cheerfully as she poked her head up again from Liaena’s pocket. Glancing around as a conjured ball of fire appeared in her hand, she proceeded to lean forward and lob it across the room at a spirit menacing Vashi, which screamed with pain at the effrontery.

*

“I….I’m sorry for what happened to you. I really am” Kathlin told the wraith that was still trying to sink it’s claws into her eyes. The girl was still managing to stay upright and walking, albeit at a tortuously slow pace, and was entirely oblivious to the battle in the room beyond the one taking place in her mind. But now, you need to go – Light take you, and go!”

A glow of holy light emanated from the girl at her last word, causing the ghost to shriek in pain even as it clung on ever more stubbornly. Kathlin gritted her teeth as knives attacked her head again, and her knees buckled to land on the floor. “Whatever your god was…go to that. That’s where you belong, not here inside my head”

*

“Kitty!? KITTY! Hang on!”
Liam yelled as he tried to pull free of Rithrynn’s iron grip, the Night Elf apparently unwilling to let go of her literal human shields anytime soon. Fixating on the dark cloud enveloping the girl, the priest muttered the frantic words of a prayer just as Kathlin reached up again to try and yank the wraith from her head; the ghost producing yet another horrible wail as it was lit up with holy fire.

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Stop him! He’ll bring others down here!” was Liaena’s input to the situation. Serphia threw the little girl a nasty look. “…Shut up. Get him, girls.”

Immediately two of the Night Elves bounded forward cheerfully, both eager and willing to carry out their mistresses orders as they zoomed straight past the runic door and after the disappearing chevalier. Serphia meanwhile, was striding swiftly forward towards the second mans bolt hole. “The rest of you, fall in”

*

"All I need, is for you to relax, and open your mind..."

“Nope, bad plan” Kathlin gasped back. Staring up at the cloud of spirits, one thing that was evident to the girl, was that Sevarian’s suggestion ranked extremely highly on the ‘nope. Nope, nope, no, no, no, no, nope’ list.

The man’s lips seemed only to twist into a fleeting smile at her comment, before he diverted his attention to inspecting his underlings closely. “It was a suggestion for your benefit”

“So, what now…?”

Kathlin shook her head as she tried to collect herself and gather her thoughts, recalling a curriculum that had focused heavily on how to apply a band-aid, not to defend your mind against a hord of evil spirits. “I suppose it is a bit of a niche topic”

The amorphous cloud of spirits was descending visibly as the cultists chanted, a pair of gnarled hands and arms becoming visible in the mist to reach forward about to grab her by the head. Kathlin balled her fists by her side as she started to murmur the words of a simple prayer under her breath, over and over again.

As the hands grabbed her by the head, a jab of agony lanced through her brain even as the creature hissed as if in pain, recoiling but still hanging on tight. One of the cultists took the moment to give her a brief glare, as she struggled to maintain her own chant. “Stop that”

“M’lord! Lord Commander!” A new voice cut through the room as a chevalier backed into the room, slamming the door and locking it, before turning to Sevarian. “Hostiles, commander! Right outside!”

“Oh…good”
Kathlin thought faintly through the swirling storm that surrounded her. Clenching her fists, she struggled to choke out a word as she screamed. “LI!”

*

“LI!”

“KITTY!” Liaena and Liam screamed back almost in unison, as Bella stared at the door with wide eyes. “Damn.”

“Dammit gal! Leave this t’ tha professionals!”

Smokey grouched behind her as Liaena shoved several sticks of dynamite under the door, before slathering the hinges with some sort of gunk out of her bag that smelled terrible as she slapped it on with a complete lack of care and attention. “Get back”

“Yup. Sure” Rithrynn said cheerfully behind her, clearly more than a little genre-savvy about the imminent situation. Liam meanwhile was edging forward, murmuring something under his breath. About to rummage in her bag for a tinder box, Liaena was taken nearly unaware as a ball of fire emerged in his hands, before he stepped forward and launched it at the door now coated in flammable explosives.

-BOOOOOOOOM-

If there had been protective spells on the door, they failed before the combined efforts of magic and Large Explosion. Shards of stone and twisted metal flew everywhere, the former sharp enough to cut through flesh with ease. They fell harmlessly to the ground however where they impacted with the glimmering shields that had appeared around both Liaena and Liam.

Liaena meanwhile, was already moving forward. She barely had time to take in the scene; the cultists, the pentagram and Kathlin standing helplessly in the middle – before the corpse of a troll was flying through the air, impacting with the nearest cultist and throwing him out of the circle.