Pezzle

The Five Senses

Whew. That was a long and exhausting plane flight. About 15 hrs.

Anyway, I'm with Org on this one. The smart thing would be to run for now and come back on a battlefield of your own choosing. Although Chres would welcome the chance of getting himself killed in a humiliating way like this, the bodyguard in him feels an obligation to make sure his death won't be a serious detriment to the team.

The cult did mention that they would rather have the characters alive than dead due to something Ms Sightless referred to as the Unspoken Pact. That may give us somewhat of an edge in a fight, but the numbers are on their side. Also there are ways to injure and immobilize people without killing them. Keep in mind that our new friend never said keeping our characters alive was a requirement. So it might not be too much of an edge. Also they have magic users and deterrents. A hasty escape is by far the better option than an unprepared and uncoordinated strike.

Also running away in a situation like this isn't guaranteed to be clean. We are surrounded. Even with illusions helping us, one way or another our characters are likely to be spotted escaping, especially by the Sightless. Sightless can't see light, and since light constructs are made of light, she'll be the first to notice what's going on.

So although we might not get a chance to kill a sightless just yet, her spotting us almost guarantees that our characters will have to duke it out with her before escaping. The ability for her to grow her appendages will make it easy for her to reach the rooftops and what not. Since her fellow cultists can't do the same, this will also give us a numbers advantage against her.

The Five Senses

Flying back to the states. I'll make a post maybe over the weekend. For the time being, havent heard anything from @elevation. I'm going to act as if he is still with the players until escaping the village.

The Five Senses

Chres Sansus

Interactions with @Elevation, @13Org, @SonofJet, @HokumPocus, @Jerkchicken

---

Chres breathed a sigh of relief as Karina went downstairs and began shouting orders. It was a good thing she was taking charge. Chres had no plans to survive the entirety of the mission. Maybe just long enough to help see the death of the seed only to die to a lone cultist as they tried to escape the town.

Chres nodded his head at the thought. Yes... that would be a good way to die. Pathetic. Unimportant. Not glorified. Never to be remembered again.

Chres closed his eyes and took a slow deep breath, releasing it after a second or two. Opening his eyes on the exhale, he proceeded down the hall and began knocking on the doors to the rooms.

"Everybody up!" Chres said loudly. He wasn't sure how everyone was still resting with all the commotion, but so far he had only seen Karina up. Chres quickly ran through the names he had memorized the night prior, when the one calling himself Gin appeared before them. "Octavio, Álmos, Hark, DB. The cultists have us surrounded. We need to leave now."

*****

Sil gasped in delight at her filthy looking friend's proposal. "Can I?" She asked her eyes alight with glee. "Can I really?" Sil turned to face the mean lady outside with the weird looking skin. Placing a finger to the right side of her lower lip, she grinned mischievously.

Sil loved games. She was really, really good at them too! Sil was only like the bestest game playing non-human flying thingamajig that she had ever met! She was also the only game playing non-human flying thingamajig that she had ever met, but that, according to Sil's calculations, only made her all the more special!

Sil had played games that involved throwing things at people before, but Chres always gave her that annoyed 'I don't know the meaning of fun' look whenever she played such games in the past. Rocks, mud, puddles, bits of shiny metal, the strange soft brown stuff dogs like to leave outside... It didn't matter what she threw. If she threw it at someone, Chres would get mad and say something like what she did was wrong or... or something... mean, maybe? Honestly, most of the stuff Chres said was really just lots and lots of words...

Sil's new friend, on the other hand, told her it was okay to throw things at people. All this time she knew it to be true, deep down inside. How could something so fun be so wrong? Ha! It just showed how much Chres knew!

"That mean old lady over?" Sil asked pointing at the weird looking woman. Sil nodded to herself as she assessed her target. "Hmmmmmm... I think I know just what to throw." She said with a smile.

Just then, the lady from the night before came down the steps and said some unimportant stuff. Sil spent that time twirling in circles, in order to prepare for her new mission.

"GO! NOW!" The lady shouted.

Sil snapped her attention to the lady at her words. "Go? Now?" Sil repeated as she looked back at the mean lady outside. It must be time for the mission! Without a second thought, Sil zipped out the window. "On it! You can count on me!" She called out behind her.

Chres, Sil thought, sending the words through her mental link with Chres. My new friend sent me on a super important mission to throw stuff at the mean lady outside. If I don't make it back alive, tell my new friend that... that he could really use a good bath... with extra puddles!

What? She heard Chres respond through their link. Wait Sil! Come back!

No time! Sil replied as she picked up some fresh brown stuff she saw a dog leave behind earlier. I need to beat the game! Sil turned towards the mean lady and threw the brown stuff with all her might.

*****

Syella waited patiently for a response but got nothing. She closed her eyelids and reached out to the insight to see if she could get a visual of the inside. She began to speak again as she did so.

"We do not wish you harm. The Unspoken Pact has made you far more valuable to us alive than dead. I simply wish to speak with you."

Syella began to visualize the inside, searching out faces covered in shadow which she could use to identify the occupants.

"We can do this one of two ways. The easy way. Or the h-" Syella ended her words in a fit of coughing, a nasty taste in her mouth and a horrible smell traveling up her nasal canal.

Something awful had flown into Syella's mouth. It smelled like... poop? Syella spat and gagged in a horrible fit. Some of her fellow concerned clansmen began gathering around her trying to assist in whatever way they could.

"Get off of me!" She yelled angrily in-between fits of coughing, spitting and gagging. A wave a rage bubbling over her. Who dared...

Syella heard a giggle off to her left. Instinctively, Syella changed the focus of her Insight in the giggle's general direction, where she saw... nothing. A blank white form floating in mid-air. She nearly missed it. Things shrouded in light were easy to miss using the Insight. As she focused on it, she could see it had the form of a small person with wings on it's back. It could only be one thing. A light construct. Or more specifically, a familiar.

If there was one useful thing about viewing light constructs with Insight, it gave one the ability to trace their sources. All light constructs gave off a faint thread of light leading to whatever piece of glass their existence was connected to. This one was no different. It's source came from within the building. They obviously didn't want to hear what she had to say. Fine. The hard way it is then.

Syella spat out more of the poop from her mouth as she motioned her clansmen to fetch her a shadow metal glove, a glove coated in shadow metal paint. Useful for dealing with Sight based magics.

The clansmen complied and handed her a spare glove which she placed on her hand. The glove appeared to suck in the light around it making the surrounding air a dark misty look. The familiar had picked up more poop and was about to throw it. No. Not this time.

Syella held her gloved hand outstretched, palm facing the familiar. Suddenly, without warning, her arm extended beyond it's normal length towards the familiar's direction. It looked almost as if the arm was going through a sudden growth spurt as her open palm shot towards the familiar's direction.

The little thing looked surprised, and barely managed to zip over to the right in time to dodge Syella's hand. Syella smirked. The familiar would need to be able to dodge more than just that.

Syella's arm continued to grow, but instead of growing past the Familiar and maintaining it's direction, Syella's wrist curved backwards, as if made of rubber. It then continued extending from the wrist, back towards the direction of the Familiar she just missed.

Syella's gloved hand hit the Familiar in the back. The familiar vanished instantly. The poop held in the Familiar's hand fell to the ground. Syella smirked as she allowed her arm to retract in on itself, returning to it's normal state.

"I wanted to give you all the choice to cooperate of your own feel will, but instead you offend me. I guess then we'll just have to smoke all of you out." Syella turned her head to her clansmen. "Torch the building." She commanded coldly.

The Five Senses

So it's currently Summer, but early morning so not extremely hot yet. It's also warmer up North than to the South. I'll work on a post as soon as I have a moment. Still sight seeing in Korea. Tomorrow morning may be a good time to start a post.

@Jerkchicken is your character currently inside the building looking out or did he already step outside?

@Hokumpocus I can see your illusion magic being really useful soon. ;)

The Five Senses

No worries buddy. This is actually a mission that sil can handle.

The Five Senses

Sil, The Magnificent

Sil giggled in delight as she watched her filthy looking friend mop the floor with mean looking people. Numbers are easier when thing you're counting is fast asleep. This would definitely be helpful with the mission! And what was the mission again? It was something super important, wasn't it?

Sil frowned. Head cocked. Finger to her lips. Hmmmmmmmm. Sil thought trying to recall what her mission was.

Feeling bored, she began rotating her form clockwise in mid-air, contemplating her thoughts. By the time she reached the upright position again, she was thinking about puddles and how humans sometimes make puddles when they think nobody is looking. She idly wondered if that was how the big puddle from yesterday came be. Perhaps the big puddle didn't eat it's mommy puddle and... How did she get to this train of thought again? Something important that she was trying to remember, right?

Sil Shrugged. Oh well. She thought. Must not have been that important.

Just then, her dirtied friend, came up to her asking about why Chres sent her down here. "Hmmmm... something to do with saving the world and puddles, I think. He's a silly human, you know?" Sil explained smiling happily.

Her friend didn't pay her comment much attention it seemed, for he moved on to the fat old man who lived here and started talking to him.

"I don't understand." The old man said, with his eye so wide that Sil thought they would pop out of his face. She giggled at the thought of it. "I humored Hark. I slept in the light of the Crystal Jade Candles. That was supposed to protect us from the damned cultist, right? Why are they raiding my place of establishment? Why are they attacking my family? What do they want from us? What did we ever do? Why are people going crazy in the streets? I don't understand."

"I don't understand either." Sil said absentmindedly. "Why do humans eat puddles? It's a mystery." Sil nodded. A serious look in her eye. The old man stared at her blankly. Sil returned his blanks stare with a friendly smile. She opened her mouth to say more, when a voice from outside interrupted.

"Hello my friends. My name is Sightless Syella. My fellow Clansmen and I have come in search for the ones who formed the Unspoken Pact with the abnormality the night before. Perhaps you know what I'm speaking of..." Sil fluttered over to the window to take a look outside.

The Five Senses

Plot Point

---

Sightless Syella Stood on the northern side of Shimmertown, hands clasped behind her back, the lids to the holes that were her eyes closed. Taking in a deep breath, she held it for three seconds and then slowly exhaled. The streets smell of smoke and blood. The heat from the nearby burning buildings warmed her rough, black, tree bark looking skin. Her ears picked up the cries of children, the begging of a mother, the screaming of the distraught, and the laughter of the maddened.

Syella, like most of her fellow Sightless and clan members, had only lived long enough to experience what her lord's influence isolated to one region. Occasionally, small groups of people would visit the cult's home, on the Broken Isles, and be influenced by the Insight. The result of this would always be a small act of violence, but nothing like this. Nothing so grand. Nothing so majestic. Nothing so... so... so wonderful!

The ordered chaos, brought on by her lord what glorious. With one fell swoop he brought madness to a peaceful town. People were rioting in the streets. Murdering and overthrowing influential officials. From just a single night's worth of Insight, the town's entire structure was collapsing in on itself. Make way for the one true order which the Clan of Insight would enforce.

A hint of smile crossing Syella's rough, black, lips. This was a glorious day to be sure. The only potential problem was the disturbance from last night. The Being of Many Names had visited the town last night. That could only mean trouble for the Clan. Her mission now was to find the ones who he had spoken to and deal with them appropriately.

"Sightless Syella!" Cried out one of Syella's Clan members. De'laire. That was her name. "Sightless Syella," De'laire said again, "We've encountered opposition in this building. We heard shouts of a Tempraisionist, before the ones shouting it was silenced. Magic deterrents are at the ready."

Syella, opened her eyelids and turn her 'stare' towards De'laire's direction. It was a pointless gesture. However, the gesture showed De'laire she had Syella's attention.

Syella frowned, motioning her head in such a way it appeared as if she were looking De'laire up and down. Sizing her up. Of course, this was all unnecessary. Syella could 'see' De'laire without looking at her using the Insight. Well, it was more like Syella could make out a hazy visual of De'laire, due to the daylight. In fact, where it not for the Distortion, Syella wouldn't have been able to make out De'laire's form at all while the lady stood in the light.

At last Syella smiled. "Surround the building and make sure that no one leaves." Syella said with the characteristically dry voice of a Sightless. "Have the magic users and magic deterrent wielders on standby." Syella turned her eyeless gaze in the direction of the building. "I will speak to the ones inside first."

A smile crossed Syella's face. An ordered resistance when there should be chaos? Syella took it to mean only one thing. She had found the ones The Being of Many Names had spoken to.

---

The Five Senses

I'll prepare another quick Sil Post over the weekend. Need some time to think it over.

The Five Senses

Karina Frost
&
Chres Sansus

---

Luckily for her, it seemed like the explosion had concentrated the attention of the attackers on the other room as there was no one near her door. They were obviously in numeric disadvantage as it was clear just due to the amount of people Karina saw outside. It was maybe only a matter of time for the rest to go there when they see something wrong happened. If they came, they would do the same that they did to the other buildings and citizens. Destroy and kill.

But much for Karina's dismay, as soon as she got out of her room, another explosion shook the entire building, proving that the time for stealth was long gone. She had to be fast, the other explosion came roughly from the same location as the last one. Immediately drawing her rapier and running towards where the explosion came, she arrived just in time to see Chres and probably the one responsible for the explosion engaging in a fight.

The man, with wood splinters all over his face, transforming it in a bloody mess had just got up from the explosion. Behind him, bodies of his allies were on the stairs, probably dead or unconscious and a few ones, growling in pain while they were pulled by others. The man lunged towards Chres with a short sword in hand. Luckily for Chres, he was able to dodge his lunge, albeit it did graze him. It would hardly be dangerous, much less fatal, but that proved that Chres could not be able to dodge the next one.

With an elegant and agile lunge, almost sliding through the wooden floor, Karina stabbed the attacker on the neck from behind. Her rapier's dark red blade completely piercing his neck, making the attacker drop his sword, scratching his throat futilely trying to breathe as he emitted gruesome, gurgling noises as blood came out, hitting Chres in the face.

"Disgusting..." Karina said with a cold expression as suddenly her rapier's blade became incredibly cold, freezing the attacker's blood on the other end where the tip was coming out, impeding it from further soaking Chres on the man's blood. It was a cruel and gruesome scene, but before pulling out her rapier from the dead man's corpse, if Chres paid enough attention, he would see that the blood coming out of the other man's neck froze in a beautiful way, resembling a red flower made of frozen blood. It was a quick sight though, as it was shattered when Karina pulled out her rapier in a swift movement. leaving nothing but a big hole where her rapier was, much bigger than the size of her blade as the area around the sword froze as well.

"There is no time for stealth anymore. We're on a dangerous situation. It doesn't matter how well trained any of us are, we can't do anything against those numbers." Karina said, cold air visibly coming out from her mouth as she exhaled, cleaning her rapier from what remained from that man's blood with a flick of her wrist. The woman standing on front of him right now had an entirely different aura from the courier from the other day. Even if she was already acting rather suspiciously before, it was much more apparent now. Graceful, agile but cold and deadly. There was no doubts about who she was.

---

Chres raised his eyebrows impressed with her efficiency. Pulling out a handkerchief from one of his pockets he wiped the blood from his brow and frowned at his now stained handkerchief. He let it drop to the floor. He'll get another later.

Taking out his flask, Chres took a sip of his flavored water, he listened to her speak. Nodding as he agreed with everything she said. "Things definitely aren't looking good out there. I saw at least one Sightless outside." Chres said to her as he put away his flask. "Sounded like they recognized that there is at least one Tempraisionist up here as well. They're probably getting the numbing oil now."

Chres sheathed his dagger, knelt down on the floor, and began rummaging through the corpse of the man who just attacked him. "You froze his blood." Chres commented as he grabbed a few knives from the corpse. "I've had my suspicions for a while about you. This pretty much confirms it."

Chres stripped the corpse of the short sword and it's sheath. He strapped the sheath around his waist and placed the short sword inside. Chres then began rummaging through the corpse he killed earlier. "Karina Frost, the Ice Flower. I've heard great things about your prowess. They say you dance across the battlefield." Chres found nothing but a hand ax on this corpse. Good enough. He took the ax and put it through a loop on one of his belts.

"So what are the chances of your allies coming to rescue us?" Chres asked, getting back to his feet. He took out his flask again and took another sip of water. He then offered it to Karina. "It's water." Chres said looking her in the eyes. He then gave a half frown. "Flavored water actually." He corrected.

---

Karina watched silently as Chres started rummaging through the recently killed bodies. Numbing Oil... An incredibly annoying substance to Tempraisionists... and to her as well. Very problematic. Sheathing her rapier, she crossed her arms, waiting for Chres to finish what he was doing. At that point, she wouldn't be surprised if he figured out that she wasn't a courier. After all, disguise, stealth... all her plan literally went through the window after Gin's appearance. But she didn't expect Chres would know even her name.

Sure... There aren't many white haired girls who happened to be very important and influential officers on the military of touch and had ice magic... But even though, she couldn't help but be rather surprised when she heard Chres' next words.

"Am I really that famous?" She asked, raising her eyebrow in an inquisitive expression. She knew she was seen almost as the 'mascot' of the military of the nation of touch due to her cute and delicate appearance but she never even considered that someone would recognize her here.

"Fencing is more than just a for killing. It's art." Karina said, drawing her rapier again in a swift motion, doing a single, flourished swing with a flick of her wrist before sheathing it again.

"And my body just happens to be perfect for this style of fighting." Karina concluded.

"I... suppose there is no reason to hide things anymore. I was in an infiltration mission in order to investigate the possible threat about the Cult. I suppose it will take some time for them to realize something went terribly wrong." Karina said, with a troubled expression.

"Honestly, since we're completely cut off from the rest of the world while we're inside this city, I can't say for certain how much time it'll take." Karina said, looking to Chres, analyzing him, considering how much it would be 'safe' to reveal for him.

"At least for now, we'll have to take care of ourselves." Karina said, waiting for his answer.

---

Chres nodded. He wasn't expecting much, but it didn't hurt to ask. He put away his flask, it didn't seem she was interested. A growl came from his stomach. He hadn't eaten yet. That would have to wait.

"I don't know about famous, but famous enough for me to have heard of you. When someone earns a name like the Ice Flower and is the daughter of a general, word tends to spread among those who find interest in such things." Chres began rubbing his unshaven chin with his thumb and forefinger, thinking.

"Escaping through the streets may be dangerous. I don't mind, but I figure you all may care more for your lives than I do mine... I could Weave some heat constructs to get us to the roof, but then I may need to weave our way from building to building. Plus they will probably still be looking for us..." Chres paused thinking.

"Where do you stand on burning the building down to help cover our tracks?" Chres asked as he looked at her expectantly. He could hear fighting taking place downstairs and orders being shouted. They probably didn't have much time.

The Five Senses

No worries Jet. You're still cool in my book.

FYI everyone. I'll be going on a two week trip to South Korea on the 19th, so I may not be as available during that time. I'll pop in as much as I can.