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Epic of Beginnings - Dawns Cradle

Lissa

“Hmm… strange. From an outsider’s perspective, I agree, it sounds rather engineered. To what means, though? Persecuting merchants or traders is self-destructive, unless you intend to isolate your village and community from the outside world. Either that, or… he’s trying to play to his populace over something that isn’t obvious,” she decided to offer, voicing some of her thoughts aloud. She was about to tuck an arm under her chest for a bit of a thinking pose when Jolca suddenly stepped over, grabbing her hand.

“Eh? A bit forward, aren’t you?” Lissa raised her eyebrow as the other girl more or less began to fondle her hand, although she refrained from jerking her arm back for the moment. Deciding to ignore her question, she instead focused on Ambros’. Were her actions that transparent? Why was Jolca playing with her palm so much, anyway? Checking for a pulse?

She tapped the girl on her free shoulder with her other hand. “Ahem… Is my hand really that interesting?”

That little bit of dialogue, however, was cut short when Ambros descended from his throne to approach her. He was a large man, but despite the size difference, the smaller Raam was not intimidated. There was the obvious deceptive strength parity, of course, but enough years of experience had immunized her to such a tactic, despite her bright-eyed, sometimes flustered personality.

“Hmm… I will, but conditionally,” she responded, keeping her same stance, although she affected a thoughtful expression as she dropped into her merchant mode. “It’s… obvious that the current situation doesn’t benefit anybody. This de facto embargo on merchants is devastating other villages and communities up the road, without access to vital goods from traders like Mie; I’ve seen it in person. If you can clear the roads for Mie, or other merchants like her, then you’ll also gain the good graces of others in the neighborhood. If you can do that, then I won’t have problems lending the full assistance of me and the rest of the resources at our disposal.”

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

Polina allowed herself a slight smirk of satisfaction as her attacks finally landed on the pesky demon, prompting a cry of outrage from the cute creature. For such a prideful being, being battered by the ground was likely far more humiliating than being hit by something more noble, like a blade or even a bullet. The maid was ready to unsling her rifle once more and unload on the helpless monster when she received direct orders to the contrary.

A mop up operation, was it? Polina didn’t like it, preferring to finish what she had started, but she acknowledged the command from Leoniya with a nod and a wave of acknowledgment. She followed after Lucrecia wordlessly, knives out once more as she began to clean up the stragglers alongside the foreign maid. Her knives homed in on their targets like guided missiles, and unlike her dance with the high demon just earlier, these had no problems finding their mark deep in the vitals of the monsters that dared approach.

Once a sufficient amount of lesser demons had been cleared, she approached the other maid. “I’m headed to the nearest armory or guard station. If there are any survivors to be found, they’ll be there or in a similarly defensible location.”

Epic of Beginnings - Dawns Cradle

Lissa

Lissa paused as she beheld the man on the ornate wooden throne. Commanding authority, he clearly had character, if his tattoos and battle scars were anything to go by.

She crooked an eyebrow at the general, unamused by the bipolar nature of his responses, but turned away as he was interrupted by another. She responded to her question with a slight inclination of her head. “Yes, indeed! I thought that I should drop by, at least, to see how things were doing. An envoy should not be kept in the dark, no?” she decided to reply, mostly neutrally, knowing that injecting herself into local politics like this was a dicey thing, as it had been for the past couple hours, already.

Although the tension was palpable, she continued with her own positive demeanor. “Yes, it’s a pleasure! It’s not a problem. I understand things have been difficult lately,” she commiserated, prodding for information at the same time.

She continued to smile politely even as Marushka was all but ordered out of the room. As the others vacated the room, she stepped forward at the enthroned man’s gesture.

“Ah… it’s not a problem. It was a little rough earlier on with the Kyrsa, but I appreciate the Yagan hospitality,” she replied, with a bob of her head. “That explains their undue hatred of merchants, at least. What was the story behind that? But where are my manners? I am Lissa,” she continued, looking a little flustered as she affected a polite bow with her hand flared out, as was the custom for addressing some lords that she was familiar with.

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

It seemed like the demon took great offense that Polina had managed to scratch her. Really, what a poor sport of a demon it was. Wouldn’t a self-respecting powerful evil being respect an opponent that could actually land a good hit on its own self? The maid thought the creature was a petulant sore loser, but Polina didn’t think it was a particularly prudent move to judge the cute beast in public when it was already pissed off. Oh, there was merit in pissing off opponents further to make them slip up, but as a good professor from her courses always said, there was a time and place for everything.

The Farisian maid braced for contact, forming up her cobblestone shielding as tightly as she could… until she noticed the… flying tank aimed right for her position.

Had Polina been a less composed maid, she would have uttered the very same obscenities as the cute demon had, but she certainly mirrored the creature’s words in her thoughts. Instead, she immediately pulled back, effectively throwing herself out of harm’s way as she crashed to the side, somewhat less gracefully than she had intended.

It was still passable, considering that she hadn’t been turned into maid-paste by a flying Kyrsan tank. Polina quickly recovered, springing up on her feet and dusting her now slightly soiled dress with a brush of her white apron. Her eyes flitted over, searching for the demon and the tank, raising an eyebrow upon seeing the demon in a rather compromised position, with the Kyrsan maid, amusingly, fruitlessly searching for and failing to find the threat right beneath her.
She decided to respond by arching an eyebrow and firing her wall of cobblestones in a single large fusillade at the pinned demon.

Two others had already pointed out the issue, after all.

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

So close.

In a vacuum, Giselle would have ended the fight right there, but large skeleton destabilized the ground briefly enough that her blow didn’t strike true. It did damage, clearly, but the majority of it had been deflected… but it was clear that the undead paladin was not going to weather the fight. The three of them had done far too much damage to it, and if it wasn’t Giselle, then it would be another that would deal the ‘mortal’ blow.

Indeed, it didn’t take long for the paladin to become distracted once again, and Giselle saw Dragan move in for the final blow. It was just a bit poetic, and she decided to stand aside to allow him to deal with his brother, moving her attention to the larger skeleton in the event that removing the paladin from the board would simply allow it to free-roam instead. Keeping her weapon at the ready to strike at it in case it didn’t collapse, she placed herself in between it and Dragan.

Epic of Beginnings - Dawns Cradle

Lissa

“Eh, well, being bright and bold and just going out there has always tended to work for me. Even if I don’t reflect those attitudes in my speech,” Lissa rebutted with a light chuckle before slightly adjusting her sword belt. “But you’re right. I suppose we do need a little bit of subtlety here…” The Raam-in-disguise sank into a nearby seat as Nylah summarized the situation and what they knew so far. Nodding along, she only spoke up towards the end of her speech.

“Hmm… sounds good to me. Perhaps I’ll check in with what local merchants they have, if they haven’t been strung up and executed,” she replied dryly.

With that, they had their simple plan, although it seemed Eirhild had decided to stay put and avoid sticking her neck out, which was a perfectly rational and safe decision. By the time that she left the house, it had started to lightly snow, although Lissa was bundled well enough to handle the cold. Not that it ever really affected her too much…

Lissa went off in search of the local merchants, and she headed towards the village center. Before she could get any real headway in finding said peddlers, though, she was able to get good directions to Jolca, and she decided to look for her first, where she found her in what seemed to be the town hall, along with some other familiar, but perhaps unwelcome faces.

“General Gershel,” she nodded, with a neutral, if somewhat unamused tone in her voice. As an outsider to the village and this particular conversation, she politely waited for it to end, but of course listened in to the dredges of what remained of it.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” Lissa said, as she approached Jolca after the little argument drew down, finding herself coming in at an obviously bad moment. “What has everybody so riled up, anyway?”

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

"Cheeky brat."

Polina tsked at herself in frustration as the high demon girl weaved in and out of each attack, neatly defying even her own guided missiles that she sent and continued to reengage. The admittedly cute creature even seemed to take joy in that fact, as it saw fit to insult them with her words. An interesting being, if it seemed to understand human nature. Her eyes narrowed as it took hold of Kat, and she raced to aid the poor cat girl. With her blades still on the girl, Polina finally had some luck as one of her blades landed true, the shock allowing the maid to squirm free.

The success, however, meant that she now had the demon’s full and undivided attention.

Thankfully, it seemed her message had been seen and received, as she caught the change in movement of the loitering airship in the corner of her eye. She was sure that the maids in command would be rather cross with her more… bold decisions of the past few minutes, but what she didn’t expect was… a Kyrsan tank being fired at their location.

After a split second, Polina decided not to question it. Instead, she simply made sure she was not in the path of the hurtling hunk of steel, and then quickly refocused her attention on the high demon. With her own source of trouble hurtling at her, she immediately jumped back, pulling her weapons back with her, too. The moment she reconsolidated them, her eyes flitted over to the chewed up remains of the cobblestone square. With another flick of her free hand –what was living without some flair, really?—she pulled the loose stones off from the ground, creating both a defensive, fluid barrier in front of her, and a secondary means of offense. Still keeping her sword at the ready, she sent off a mass of the rocks at the demon, mixing in her deadlier blades amongst her little barrage.

Well, that better work. At least, until backup was on site in the next few moments.

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

That little set of actions could have gone better, but Giselle didn’t complain. This creature, as pitiable as it was, had still been a paladin. Even if he had never commanded respect for his political or religious views, his skills in combat commanded its own degree of respect, even now. And Giselle was an administrator and a creator, not a true frontline combatant, even if she had picked up some formidable skills over a millennia prior.

She followed her momentum as her last strike was deflected up and away, shifting on her feet just in time to witness Dragan crater in its torso with his Warhammer. She had hoped for a victory then and there, but experience told her that it would not be so simple. Indeed, the skeletal beast reacted… poorly.

Yet, they finally knew where the silver sword was, a fact that Giselle was not particularly appreciating as it was cast down at her, forcing her to rapidly and somewhat inelegantly scramble away from the threat. Nearby, the paladin itself had seemingly conjured up its own silver blade. The fight, it seemed, would only escalate from here.

It took a split-second decision for her to decide to reinforce the male vampire lord. Injured by the silver weapon, she quickly moved to intervene, even as Dragan recovered. From the other side, Giselle double-teamed the paladin. Using the full reach of her scythe to stay out of reach of its blade, she swung out for his head as he was knocked back, intending to loop off his head entirely—or, at least, bring him off his feet, so that he could be smashed into the ground with a follow-up.

Epic of Beginnings - Dawns Cradle

Lissa

“Throwing their weight around?” Lissa parroted her words, tilting her head slightly to emphasize the point. Even if she hadn’t been a merchant, she liked when people talked. You didn’t really have to say much, but just letting people talk meant that you could learn a lot. Like what the Yaga girl was disclosing casually. Even if she wasn’t snooping around for information, the Raam still very much enjoyed hearing peoples’ stories. “I know it can be a taboo topic in some places, but considering the risk to merchants, knowing what’s going on is fairly important… what’s going on with the Kyrsa?”

Lissa had her theories, especially after she’d born witness to that interesting display between the two just a moment ago, but she still wanted the full picture from the source. Ideally, she’d find someone from the Kyrsa to tell her their side of the story as well, but given the three of them had nearly been detained, she wasn’t about to go around testing the limits of the fragile new protection they had been afforded.

The bit about the Death goddess was interesting. Lissa wasn’t quite so attuned with the divine before recently. She still wasn’t, really. She knew some of the history, sure, but the deep lore… she was no scholar. That wasn’t to say she didn’t have any questions, but their host abruptly left after her small explanation, prompting Lissa to raise an eyebrow towards her companions before catching Nylah’s look.

Lissa spoke as soon as the Yaga girl was out of earshot. “Right… What do you two think? I intend to look for Jolča in the village center, and see what her insights are. Then I’ll just do my usual thing, hang about the village and see what the news is. Never fails.”

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

Polina merely gave a shrug at Katherine’s complaint, but as the awful creature bulled through their sustained fire and the rest of their defenses, including her own best efforts, she began to grow more concerned. She had been very dearly hoping that they could stop it before reaching them entirely, but even with the volume of bullets and sharps they poured on it, all they did was to slow it down. Then, it finally reached close quarters with Polina. She immediately rolled and jumped away, barely in the nick of time as she felt the heat almost singe her hair as she disengaged, silencing a yelp from the close encounter. Really, if it hadn’t been for all the sparring she did with her sister, then she would have been a cooked and pulped Polina right now.

Willing her blades to move again, she yanked on them with her magic until they came free, ready for her to try at a second attempt when she heard… laughter?

Had one of her comrades gone mad with combat already? No… Polina watched as something cute danced into the opening. It was very cute. It also didn’t take a genius to realize it was also very dangerous. “Well, this is less than ideal,” she muttered, quickly replacing her rifle with a flare gun. Her superiors needed to know. Still keeping an eye on the other threat nearby, making sure to keep its distance, she shot two color-coded flares into the air consecutively: red, for high demons, and blue, for ‘shit has hit the fan.’

With two bangs, the two fireworks bloomed into the air near their airship. Distress call sent, she pocketed the little gun, and unsheathed her sword, assessing the situation once more.

Personally, she would have tried diplomacy here. Despite the gruesome introduction, the cute high demon had not attacked them yet. That, however, didn’t stop Kat or Lucrecia, making the decision moot. Unwilling to engage too closely, she summoned up yet more sharps from within the folds of her dress, sending a small barrage of blades at the high demon. She focused hard on their paths and trajectory, trying to exploit any openings not covered by any of her fellow maids’ attacks.

Things were looking dire, now. But with luck, maybe they could make it out…