“Hark, wary watchmen, so your worry fades. Hither good omen, forsooth the Queen’s Blades.” -Draza, Page 1.
West Watch Tower
The girl grinned quite happily at Aëyr and Draza, though especially the latter with her entertaining singing voice. She clears her throat and dangles her feet over the edge of the watch tower, swinging them back and forth energetically as she replied. "Oooh, well! Rules, rules rules rules." It quickly became apparent from the way she was scratching her head that she likely had no clue how to play chess, or that she was making it all up on the fly. "Ahh! Yes. Well." She snaps her fingers and the ground beneath their feet morphs into a black and white checkered pattern, that of a chess board. "Lets seee... Ahhh..." She pulls out a small book from the watch tower's floor and flips through a few pages quickly. "Ah! Aha~ Sloth's rules." The girl said with satisfaction in the tone of her voice as she closes the book.
Before the party of six, five of the crows lined up on the opposite side of the "board" upon which all of them stood, which was roughly one hundred and two feet squared, and each became demons, though lesser forms of each it seemed. Two were succubi with whips, two were skeletal with bow and arrow that looked fragile enough in melee but might be hard to approach, and one was a large, ten foot tall megalith with hooved feet wielding a two handed warhammer that looked mean enough to cleave through stone if it wanted. Presumable, the knights, bishops, and queen piece, each respectively, arranged on the right places on the board they would start.
The girl then drops down from the side of the watch tower, hands stretched out to each side as her descent somehow slowed, though the magic-oriented members of the group would recognize it as arcane magic. Quietly landing on the middle of the board, she smiled childishly. "Sloth said this game is fun for mortals! I'm a mortal, so I think I will have fun!" A sixth person appears beside her in a puff of smoke, this one was distinctly human and covered head to toe in black leather armour. At his waist was a pair of daggers, and a hood covered his face in shadow. "Meryl, this may be unwise." Meryl shakes her head. "No! It'll be fun, who cares about wisdom, psshhh, wisdom is boooring."
Meryl then turns towards the group of six, who would find themselves trapped on the board behind a magical barrier, which Naream would sense is being projected by the book, which was now on the girl's back. "Okay! Rules! If you catch me, the game ends, and I give this button," She pulls out a mechanist detonator, likely the one that was meant for the bomb. ", to whoever catches me! Hoowweever, if all of you are down... The game ends!" The man in dark leather vanishes, likely either protecting Meryl or taking his place on the board, or perhaps darker tasks. Looking at the group of six, she then adds one last thing. "Oh, and when you start moving towards me, or use any magic, the game starts! Okay? Okay!"
East Watch Tower
Alicia's engagement against the half-orc was something to see, the artistry of someone made and armed for dueling was impressive enough, even as Darek stopped moving forward upon the parasol being thrown. He was no fool, and hadn't been charging, though he had no silver helmet to protect him. He holds his guard as Alicia surges forth to mock a blow, in an attack style that was likely foreign to the orc as he managed to narrowly block it with his steel shield. The shield was slowing him down even though he was wearing leather armour and not plate mail, like Dirge was.
He responds viciously however as he spots her moving to his side, suddenly charging forth as she moved and slamming into her with his elbow and shoulder, knocking her to the ground. He then readied a second strike, yelling viciously something unintelligible.
The other orc, Oran, burst into a charge at the sight of the great bow being drawn. He started to raise his shield in the same motion as the arrow was loosed for the torso, though the arrow slipped past the shield and above its mark, instead hitting his silver helmet and knocking it straight off with sufficient violence as to cause him to start bleeding from his forehead. With a furious growl his charge continued and as Kasim finished pulling out his short sword he would barely manage to evade receiving an axe to the chest. Instead the arm not holding his blade would be cut, badly enough to bleed in a concerning manner and make bending it quite painful. Oran spits on the ground as the black blood starts to approach his eyes, seemingly without his own knowing. "Glorious." He remarks as adrenaline coursed through him.
Meanwhile, Dirge faced several potential threats at once. He knew this and stopped moving as whatever bizarre plan the group had seemingly mustered came into action. He heard the weapon being thrown behind him but paid it no heed as it landed a couple feet away from him, Child's attack being nowhere near sufficient to even be worth blocking anyway as the weapon was not suited for piercing plate mail. Before him the scarab charged, and was a much more significant threat to deal with in the next five seconds. Dread Fang attempted to attack him and instead would feel the wrath of a warhammer slam into his side, sending him skittering and sliding a couple feet to the orc's right side. Dirge turned to face the threat once more, as Dread Fang survived the blow, though his chitinous exoskeleton was badly damaged and he was bleeding down his left side, and both the orc and Zayne would hear the inevitable whine of pain. Upon this happening, Dirge hesitated. Dread Fang would recognize it sharply: Dirge had no killing intent in his moves. Why swing for the side when swinging from above would have undoubtedly been a killing blow?
There was a chance that words could get through to him, or at least slow him down enough to allow a combination of Child and Dread Fang's attacks simultaneously to kill him. "Retreat," Dirge repeated, now to all three of them telepathically. "And I won't have to kill you."
Town Square
Jeremy did not respond to Laenaia's attempt to communicate with him. Ceann's attempted attack against him, however, was somewhat successful. The lightning arrow lodges itself into his left shoulder, though the actual lightning itself didn't appear to do any real damage to him save pissing him off and wrecking his illusory spell as little bits of lightning here and there continued to "spark" from the arrow, disrupting his illusion completely, though the ghosts remained. His response was swift as he leaped backward from the group. "(Drow) Damn you, black skinned menace..." Blood stained his robes and his left arm was rendered useless, though a large amount of magical energy began to channel around his right hand. Still this did not affect the ghosts.
Andrea's attempt to sway the spiders to her side worked with one. It seemed to relax a little, its black eyes staring at her unwaveringly and curiously. The other one, however, was not so impressed, and before Andrea could work harder on it, a small flurry of throwing knives comes her way from Jeremy's position, two strike her, one in the thigh and one in her right side, both wounds would require medical attention of some sort soon lest she run out of green blood to bleed. It seemed that the last of his comrades, or minions, appeared from an illusory spell. A woman with a golden blonde ponytail tied back and a pair of golden coloured eyes stared at the group: An Aasimar, armed with a pair of throwing knives that could feasible be used as impromptu daggers. "Are you alright honey?" She asked with some distress in her voice. "I'm fine, keep these deluded fools away so I can finish this spell and even the odds!" Jeremy replied with equal concern for the woman. "Of course!" She replies with a certain cockiness in the tone of her voice. This was not her first fight.
At the same time, Zin's attempt to get through to the militia mostly failed. She would quickly realize that they were all so absorbed by their fear that they likely couldn't hear her, leave alone pay attention to her... All save Eldrick, who snapped out of his fear and nodded to Zin. "R-Right... Right... This happens... In Liveria... I should know this, grahh!" Thailen's call to arms then followed suit, and she charged the spider to the left of the fountain, which was naturally closer. Eldrick nodded and moved with his homeland comrade, though the spider hissed. It spat some kind of vicious poison at Thailen and while she evaded most of it she would find it burning its way through her right leather shoulderpad. She could continue her charge, and help Eldrick kill the spider, but run the risk of the acidic venom burning into her skin and likely poisoning her... Or she could stop and tear the pad off, though it could slow her down enough to stop her from being able to help Eldrick.
Eldrick's attack came from the spider's side, and with a single mighty swing with his arming sword he cut off a portion of one of its forward legs, causing it to stumble and once again hiss, though this time in pain as it stumbled back from the fountain, seemingly readying another vicious spit attack. It seemed these bigger spiders, contrary to popular belief, were not as agile as their much smaller cousins, who thanks to certain mathematical laws of nature, were simply far lighter to be performing instantaneous responses.
Wayne responded to all of this by hesitating and staring in awe. It seemed his upbringing had left him dry of any real conflict like this, so without further hesitation he immediately charged the woman armed only with his arming sword and chain mail. Chain mail which did not stop one of the knives being thrown like a dagger into Wayne's throat. Wayne however was not stopped by this, being a vampire, such a wound would not kill him, though he gurgled in pain. He swung his arming sword and got locked in a duel as the woman tried to hold back his blade and superior strength with just her dagger. Still, despite being wounded, Wayne was slowly pushing her back, with help he might even be able to kill her.
Clarify: Jeremy and his protector stood a few feet away from the group on the right side of the fountain, whilst the terrified militia were all huddled right up at and around the fountain. The spider on the right side of the fountain became friendly to Andrea while the one on the left did not, and was injured by Eldrick. The protector is locked in a duel with Wayne, trying to hold him back.
Raven's Inn
As the group entered and stared dumbfounded at the large cat doing absolutely nothing whatsoever, and not coming up with a plan, the cat licked its chops looking at them. The sabretooth, Freya, likely hadn't been fed for a while. Just as it seemed the best plan would be to chop up the crazy dwarf and serve him on a platter, Mikan bursts in through the shroud, dark hair and all, and looks at the beast. "Ohhh... So that's what James meant." Quickly she seemed to ponder her options as she looked at the tower, an all too familiar glint in her eyes as she thought about how to infiltrate and steal what was inside. "Well... It's a cat." She looks at it. "A big cat." Mikan then looks around at the group. "And there are... A half a dozen of us. Versus the big cat." Pulling out a dagger she twirls it around her fingers dexterously. "Aaand... We can't kill the cat. Sooo..." She tosses the dagger into the air and catches it with her other hand. "...We play cat and mouse. I mean... There are seven of us. Four or five of us can distract the cat and cover each other when we need to escape by tackling the cat or getting the cat's attention or other such things, while two people run inside or sneak inside and get to the chest, then get the key. Then the people inside tell us they have the key, and we uhh... Go find that chest we need to unlock."
A big, childish grin crosses her face as she sheathes her dagger and looks at her compatriots. She was a little on the taller side, and would be equally useful for either task, though seemed intent on trying to encourage some leadership and initiative out of these Queen's Blades. After all, they were supposed to be the pinnacle defenders and servants of the Queens. If they can't somehow figure out a way around a wild animal to get a key, how were they supposed to defeat the demon invasion?
Greed's Revelry
"Ahhh! It has been too long since You last came to My domain, Lust!"
"Quite, Greed. Where is Envy, wasn't She supposed to be here?"
"Yes, yes, well, I made sure She would be busy, mmheheheyes, yes. Promised Her the next ones would be Hers, you know how She gets, so jealous, so..."
"Greedy, I know."
"Ohh, but You seem ssssoooooo disappointed! Mmhmmhmm, hehehehe..."
"These are the first Queen's Blades We will be getting that were hand picked by the Queens of that little upstart kingdom. Envy will more likely break them than get real information, so, yes, I am quite irate... However, You wished to see Me, so go ahead."
"Hmm hmm, mm, well, I saw this little opportunity... You see... That little agent of Mine, James, he sprung himself a little surprise... You know Sloth's misery lately, the missing child of His? James took it."
"Ahh... So We need to retrieve it to win Sloth's confidence back?"
"Well, yes, b-but, that isn't enough! The child is a ticket! If it lives We can use it! Use it to get closer to their riches, their information, their--"
"--Royalty... And their spymaster."
"Yess, if You want such... Boring targets. I guess. Mm mm. Oh well. Mhm, well, yes, here, here are the plans, I have, You see, all laid out, just for Usss."
"Good, good... Oh, and Greed."
"Mmm?"
"In Your next life, choose something with organs next time, and I promise, I will give You a good time if this lead goes anywhere."
"Eh hehehehe... No."
