[Log] Rimehowl's Blight [1/2]
Who: Agrias Oaks, Cameron Mitchell, Christoph Schmidt, Gwen Meynolt, Meliadoul Tengille, Reis Duelar, Simon Parker, Zack Fair
Where: House Oaks - Kingdom of Ivalice - Fantasy Sector
When: 03 September 2008
What: Having tracked down their fledgling Death Knight, the IPA prepares to take in the wayward Captain and restore her to her former self. Unfortunately, things don't really go as planned, and all Hell breaks loose - literally.
Watch For: The buffer, it weeps.
Fantasy Sector - Lesalia Imperial Capital
Lesalia Imperial Capital lay at the heart of Ivalice, in the central province of Lesalia. It is among the largest cities of this medieval kingdom, as well as one of the most ancient. The city has closely-packed houses, made of timber and sloped roofs, that hug to winding narrow streets. At the center of the city is an immense castle - the palace of the Ivalician royal family. It also houses the Senate, and countless nobles.
Contents:
Christoph Schmidt
Reis Duelar
Cameron Mitchell
Zack Fair
Gwen Meynolt
Meliadoul Tengille
Simon Parker
Obvious exits:
Northeast leads to Fantasy Sector - Nelveska Temple.
Rumours abound lately in southwestern Lesalia of a strange woman travelling the roads. They say she seems to have a specific destination in mind, keeping ever towards the west and southwest of the province. A knight of some sort, many of these stories agree on. Her description matches the missing Captain of the Vanguard Detachment.
Ran through the last brigands that approached her, one thief reports, wide-eyed. Killed me brother, she did; she ran Ruan through like a stuck pig and watched him bleed out on the road. Rest of us did the smart thing, we did, we runs away as far and fast as our legs take us.
One thing is certain in every story. She travels steadily southwest, as though for a specific destination. So - the woman makes for the estate of Lord Argus Oaks, last man to own this land in several years, now in ruins and neglect since the entire family's death. Tragic, local passers-by comment. They seemed so devout.
And that seems to be where Agrias Oaks, last living scion of the Oaks bloodline and wayward Captain of the Vanguard Detachment, has gone.
The ruins themselves are run-down nearly to nothing, yet somehow peaceful. Suggestions of walls lie amid untidy heaps of earth. Greenery runs rampant, here, where nature has begun to take back the broken citadel. Occasionally, things can be seen half-buried in the loam and loose soil - bones, ruined chocobo tack, rusted and useless weapons. It seems the bannermen, house knights, and family of the Oaks estate did try to put up a fight, but were not successful - many of these things are burnt, some nearly beyond recognition.
The Holy Knight herself is in the centre of the ruins, the tattered green cloak of her disguise two days' past hanging limp about her shoulders. Her head is bowed, her hands listless at her side. The grounds are silent as the grave, and she does seem to be paying some slight attention to her surroundings - but most of her attention seems to be on whatever she's speaking.
"Hearken to me, my bannermen, my house knights, my lord father, my lord brothers, my lady mother..." Her voice doesn't sound itself at all, a dry rasp, like a death-rattle. "I do what I do not for having lost my faith or my way."
"I have found my way," she continues, as though reasoning with someone right there. "I serve now a new master. Thy servitude under my command shall not be an unwholesome thing. Thou shalt serve the greatest of masters, in this way, and thy payment shall be an existence unending! Thou shalt not die, nor shalt thou weaken, or lose thy endurance..."
It seems nonsense - she speaks to nothing but ghosts. Nobody else is present in the grounds around her but the bones of the bannermen; the house knights, her family. Agrias continues, her voice still that unearthly rasp.
"Thou shalt find that I am not an unreasonable master. Raise," she urges, "that there may be a suitable foundation to this fledgling army. Raise, that we might show my Lord the Lich King what power we may wield, and turn on those enemies of the Scourge..."
She pauses, as though listening to something, and her expression seems to darken faintly. "Thy resistance is admirable, but pointless. Thou shalt be in mine command, in the end."
There's another pause, and her expression seems to turn speculative. "Now that is interesting." She looks sideways, but she doesn't seem to see. The look in her eyes - now a distressing corpse-yellow, her face a mask of deathly, ashen pallor - seems far distant. "Where is Crevan...?"
Simon was here, not quite two weeks ago, talking with Agrias about her family. Small irony that he's returned in such a short span, to keep his former Captain from doing Hell-knows-what in this forsaken place.
The acting acting Captain of the Vanguard Detachment leads the procession on his chocobo, Octavian. He's wearing a long, plain cloak over his combat gear to draw less attention from the locals, but beneath it, he's armed to the teeth. Oaks fought like a monster, and if anything she's probably gotten worse since their last confrontation.
The demon dismounts a goodly distance from the remains of House Oaks, leaving Octavian to his own devices-Parker's got Gysahl Greens, and can lure the neurotic chocobo back once the fight's over. If you're still alive, says the little pessimistic voice in the back of his head.
"Nonsense," Parker says aloud. "Go on, shoo," he says, waving Octavian off. He then trudges through the grass, drawing his gun as he moves. He makes no attempt to try and surprise Agrias-he simply walks up to her, stares into those horrible corpse-yellow eyes, and snarls. "Oaks. This has gone on for long enough. Come back to your senses, or we'll beat you until you do."
Christoph lowers his hand, lowers it to rest on the hilt of his sword. It may be unsubtle, but really, everyone can feel the tension brewing already. This is unlikely to resolve quietly, and politeness at this juncture really is wasted. And after that last fight, he knows he has to be ready for many different scenarios, all of them violent.
He speaks now. "Did not expect peace," he says resignedly, almost mournfully. "Just offering respect. Für Hauptmann Oaks. Lich König, however, can go suck on his own privates. Expect that would be the most fun he had since finding the dead sheep." What's politeness?
He waves a hand, and a floating, glowing screen pops into being next to him. Midchildan script starts to fill it, and he squints slightly, reading. "According to this, Glabados took the...deed to Oaks estate. Similar to housing crisis in that one country, on Earth-named world. Banks, ah, foreclosing on...wie sagt man...mortgage." He tilts his head thoughtfully. "Suppose we are still trespassing, then, did not as Glabados for permission. But then...you are too." The terminal is banished with a wave of the hand.
He offered his respects with the salute. And now he's taking it all back. Get her angry. Make her fight stupid. A time-honored tactic employed by many over the years, one familiar to Christoph in his time in Section 9 and now in IPA SWAT. Of course, people fighting angry and stupid also can hurt more, but....
Note! Agrias can no longer hear messages on these frequencies from this point on, but the communication has been left intact for the purposes of logging.
Captain Simon Parker says, "Get ready."
Factotum Gwen Meynolt says, "Yes."
Master Sergeant Christoph Schmidt says, "Ready."
Captain Simon Parker says, "She's not going to budge. We'll have to take her by force."
Zack Fair says, "....."
Reis Duelar says, "Let me first - please."
Captain Simon Parker says, "You're welcome to try, but that thing has its claws in her brain."
Zack Fair says, "Let her try! You never know..."
It's amazing how quickly a hydra grows. Meliadoul would have remarked upon it but there are more pressing matters at hand. Hearing Agrias like this, is a little creepy. Meliadoul is used to the other knight responding with a hot retort, something sharp, borderline cruel even. That is the nature of their relationship. But this... The lance is prepped into a charging situation and she keeps her eyes on former Holy Knight. "The Frozen North holds no sway here Oaks. You do not have Sunderland's power, even as you claim that he is weak. The dead do not answer your call." She pauses for a moment, allowing the silence from the graves to support her accusation. "Do you not see? They resist you and the twisted creature that you have become."
Her lips curl slightly as she moves her gaze to Defender, "Do you not see your sword? It no longer glows with the power you once held. Even your own blade has forsaken you Agrias Oaks. Stop this foolishness and reclaim what was once rightfully yours." She sets her feet apart and shakes her head a little. She knows nothing of this Arthas fellow but it does not surprise her that the Church laid claim to this land.
"This is not your home any longer Agrias," her voice drops, losing it's edge. "Your home is with us, in the Hub, by Ovelia's side. It is not too late. The fate of Folmarv Tengille need not be your fate as well."
"I have business," Reis says, her heart in her throat; the nervousness in her voice is obvious to anyone who hears it. "I would - speak with you, if I could. Even if you do not want to hear it. It is important to me - please..."
She swallows. Ruklegos growls at her side; she rests her hand on one of his three heads, and he quiets, although does not become any more calm. The others are antagonizing her. She wishes they didn't, not for a few minutes, so she can talk...
"You are - you - you helped me once," Reis says, not sure how to put it. "You are a good person. You are, you did all that because I was in trouble, not for any reason - we'd never met before. And you aren't now; you wouldn't do - what you did. Please - please, come with me, let me help you the way you helped me. I don't have a weapon, and I swear that if you do come peacefully, none of them will hurt you, either."
Meliadoul Tengille growls quietly.
Reis Duelar says, "If she comes - don't. Don't hurt her."
Meliadoul Tengille says, "You have my word Lady Duelar."
Master Sergeant Christoph Schmidt says, "Would be nice if soft touch works."
Captain Simon Parker says, "If she comes willingly."
Gwen's eyes run over the fallen knight as she speaks, desperately seeking some sort of hint that Agrias she had known, if only professionally, is there. Instead, so it seems, there's just this being, as cruel and twisted as Sunderland was. "No, Captain," she says finally, shaking her head, "I am afraid we cannot withdraw." There's a glance over at Cristoph as he pulls up something she can't read from here, and at his findings, can't help but smile, albeit a touch sadly. "...Ah. Our trespass, then, is simply to cease your own, Captain Oaks."
Her hand slowly reaches down towards the buckles on her satchel, and she begins to work them open. "...Allow the dead their peace, Captain," she says, hoping for a peaceful resolution even as she makes to prepare for battle, her brown eyes locked on Agrias' dead yellow, "They would not wish to walk the land again in torment. Surely, you, a paladin, must understand that...? Set your blade aside. As Lady Reis says... we do not wish for conflict."
Reis Duelar says, "If it lets her, she will. If it doesn't - I'll - do what I did before, to the other cursed things."
Factotum Gwen Meynolt begins to mutter something that sounds like a prayer.
Whether Zack caught that momentary pause or not is hard to tell- he looks fairly dismayed either way. It isn't quite the same as Eleven- it isn't obvious who is in control, to him, which makes things more complicated, and frankly, Zack doesn't like dealing with complicated. "...." And so he turns his gaze away, down towards the ground, his expression clearly troubled.
He only lifts his head as Simon speaks again, watching the man with some amount of confusion, and he attempts not to look just slightly offended. "It isn't her fault," he protests, but falls silent, furrowing his brows. Okay, fine, let them say what they want, if it makes them feel better, but really, it isn't her fault! He refuses to believe it is!
Thankfully Reis has some idea more along the lines of his own- even if he'd probably not be able to say it so well, obviously. "Yeah," he confirms, nodding his head, "You don't need a king or whatever to tell you what to do! You'd probably scare him anyway when you got mad, so... come back with the people who are used to it, right?"
He's trying to help, really.
Meliadoul Tengille !
Cameron Mitchell says, "I can knock her out pretty fast, comes down to it."
Meliadoul Tengille says, "You... but I thought we put away all the stones..."
Master Sergeant Christoph Schmidt says, "...Steine? Stones?"
Reis Duelar says, "Not that!"
Reis Duelar says, "I would not carry one!"
Meliadoul Tengille sighs in relief.
Master Sergeant Christoph Schmidt says, "Ach. Gut."
Yeah, really, Cameron's not too sold on this 'talking her down' plan, but if it works, great. The Lieutenant Colonel, however, is prepared with a backup plan of his own, because while others might be trying to convince Agrias that they're not armed... Mitchell is very much so. "Sure," he twangs from the back. "Listen to these guys, they've got your best interests at heart." Uh, he thinks. He's not really sure what, if anything, is going on in Zack's head.
But, Mitchell's hand creeps down to his right thigh, where his sidearm would normally be strapped into place; in its stead is a weird-looking object, that Cam pulls free from its holster, gripping it like some sort of pistol as the top portion unfolds with a click and a quiet whine, like something powering up. "So let's all head back somewhere nice an' quiet and talk this over with a big steaming mug of hot chocolate." Before he has to shoot you with an alien technology knockout gun, Agrias. Cameron smiles his winningest smile at this point, trying to come across as sincere as he adds: "With marshmallows."
He is, however, pointing that weird-looking gun in Agrias' direction. Paranoid much?
"How pathetic mortals are." Agrias shakes her head as though in pity. Her face twists into a sadistic smile, though, pale lips pressed thin. "Thy defiance will be crushed. Valianelty ye fight against such a force, but there is no power in this world or the next to equal it. Death is all-consuming. It is true power."
She glances over towards the next person to speak. That would be Christoph, to whom she casts a flat gaze, as though disinterested in what he has to say. "Glabados will never own this soil. It belongs to Oaks blood, by right." It's as simple as that, by the sound of her tone. "I will purge this world of their every last trace," she adds, in a more commanding tone of voice.
"Hmm." Silence falls, and she stares the Knight Templar down for a moment. "No power does the Lich King hold here? Of course He does. As for Sunderland... as I said, he was weak. And for his weakness did he pay the price." She gives a small, dismissive sound. "The Scourge does not fain tolerate weakness. It has no place."
Rightfully hers? The words seem to give Agrias pause for a moment, thoughtful, and perhaps her allies might feel a bit of hope. But that hope is likely dashed when she speaks again.
"The Lich King is now the rightful owner of these lands." She narrows those corpse-yellow eyes. "Doubt ye that I hast the power to raise all who served here? All who have perished, here?"
The wind seems to take a turn for the worse, shrieking as it rounds the crumbled masonry. It brings winter with it, leaving a sheath of ice over stone and greenery.
Even before the icy kiss of the wind passes, several things happen at once.
"She does not believe," she states to the wind, as though speaking to someone.
Then we must see that she does, my Knight. The voice of the Lich King carries a note of triumph. One more to his name, thoroughly corrupted and carrying with her the will of the Scourge. I grant you the power to do what you must, for the Scourge...
"Verily, my Lord." Agrias kneels, as though reverently, answering an unheard voice. She turns again to face the assembly, shifting her grip on Defender's hilt.
"Thou art correct, Knight of Green." Agrias smiles a sadistic little smile towards Meliadoul, and in a sudden motion, she flings the anointed blade towards her former ally; a vicious strike. "Take yon blade, then, and deliver it unto those who would have a care for such paltry things. I've a better blade to my hand."
"Rimehowl!"
At the sound of the name, the wind howls and shrieks through the open stones, gale-force winds nearly sharp enough to knock over the unprepared. The winds carry ice with them, quickly frosting over the ground that isn't protected by greenery in some form or another, but even the greenery is soon frozen; sheathed in ice.
Agrias kneels, whisking off the gauntlet of her right hand - the skin now corpse-pale - and bringing a fist crashing into the frozen earth. She strikes one more time, seeing that her knuckle is made ragged by the blow. From there she tilts her hand, letting a drop of the blood spill onto the snow, blossoming.
The drop shimmers, warping and twisting, expanding impossibly into an elongated shape. Steam billows from the strange mass, and Agrias reaches into the steam, seemingly without regard for her unprotected hand.
From the steam she draws the thing that they had supposedly destroyed - the runeblade, Rimehowl, black as the abyss and shot through with glowing blue runes. Rimehowl, the hated, cursed weapon, still steaming from the touch of Agrias' own tainted blood.
"To me, spirits of House Oaks!" Agrias rises and lifts Rimehowl aloft in the same motion, her voice a commanding, unearthly bellow. "To me, my bannermen! To me, my kith and kin! Thou shalt serve one last time, one last eternal span! Thou shalt become as one with the Scourge, united 'neath the rule of the Lich King, the Lord of the Frozen North!"
The reaction is almost instantaneous.
Buried bones rattle underfoot. Charred, rusted weapons shudder from their half-buried positions. The earth seems to burst in half a hundred places, lightly-armoured soldiers pushing their way free of the earth. Little remains of many of them; charred bones and equipment, with nothing left to identify them by - bannermen and house knights, for the most part.
Some are ghosts, with no corporeal form left, looking as they did in death and bearing horrible wounds, burns, and the occasional axe or sword through the head. Their spirit-weapons are sharp enough, though, and those are carried with them.
Slowly, they assemble and rally behind Agrias, each skull bearing the brilliant cyan glow of the Scourge, that same fel blue light spilling from their open mouths as their heads tilt back, jaws falling open in a silent warcry. Yet among them, none of them yet seem to bear the features of Oaks blood - her kinsmen, perhaps, still resist...
Agrias' own eyes are now glowing blue, as well, that brilliant, fel taint of the Scourge. She smiles, sadistically, pointing the light-swallowing blade at her former allies.
"I grant thee one last chance."
One last gust of wind rips through the ruins, shrieking and howling like one dying.
"Willst thou surrender? Willst thou join the Scourge willingly? Or must I battle, and prove to thee the might of the Lich King?"
You switch armor modes to Death Knight.
"...Hell."
That's all Simon Parker says as the earth tears itself asunder, the bones of the fallen rising and reassembling themselves en masse. His face pales, and the sudden display of necromantic power shrieks like a banshee in his ears; for a few seconds, Parker looks like he wants to vomit, but the feeling passes quickly enough. "So you have a small army," Parker says. He holsters his gun, and extends an arm. He angles it downwards; there's the slow, deliberate metallic hiss of a blade sliding out of a sheath, somewhere. Only this blade is far too large to be concealed up that sleeve-yet it is, somehow.
The demon holds the Bloody-Handed Judge with white-knuckled hands, the weapon-chain jingling. "Corpses can't replace the living. Don't make me demonstrate."
"Es gibt keine Eichen. There are no Oaks right now. The last one went away. You wear her face, but you are not an Oaks." Christoph slides his hand down to grip Balmung securely, though does not draw his blade yet. "She might return. Maybe. But she is not hier, not right now. If not to Glabados, then to no one, this land."
He then shakes his head, looking faintly disgusted...or maybe just tired of hearing about the Lich King. "'Rightful' means legitimate. Don't think that is the case. As I said, Lich König...." He makes a rather obscene gesture, or at least an obscene one in his world, one which means...well, what his suggestion was earlier.
But despite his almost laid-back attitude about all of this, he cannot help but widen his eyes when Agrias intones the name of that broken blade. But it was.... "Ach," he mutters, watching her punch the earth, hard, in order to retrieve the accursed thing. Now he draws the blade, now he begins to move forward-but the chill wind pushes him back. Despite not being a gale force, it somehow has the strength to hold him in place, unable to advance more than a step or two. He raises his left hand to shield his eyes from the biting cold.
And when it dies down, there is more than just Agrias to face. "Donnerwetter," he mutters darkly, looking askance at the instant army. "You already know the answer, woman." He shifts now into an undisguised battle stance, holding Balmung high, ready to charge.
And why WOULD Meliadoul believe? Just because some stupid voice in Agrias's head is telling her to? Pffft. But then the unexpected happens. Defender comes flying straight for her. To her credit, she does not duck nor does she parry. Instead, a plate covered hand reaches up and catches the heavy sword by its blade. The sharp edge crunches along the mail, but does not cut the Templar. Her lips open to say more but then the wind howls and brings with it an ice storm.
She raises her arm to her eyes, shielding her face from the sudden drop in temperature, missing the drop of blood that falls to the ground. But the formation of Rimehowl does not escape her notice. "Tch! Lady Duelar!" She shouts to Reis as her right arm brings the sword up to a ready position.
The ground rumbles and bones black with dirt and ash rise and never once in her entire life has Meliadoul ever seen such a sight. "God have mercy on us," she whispers, as she feels true fear for the first time since the incident with the Zodiac stone. Her eyes turn to Agrias then, fear and anger warring for a place in her expression. She swallows hard and shifts her grip, still holding Defender by it's blade. "Nay. We will not surrender. Not until we purge you of this foulness that has tainted your soul."
"My God..."
For one instant, Reis looks as pale as Agrias does, but in her case it's just fear and disgust as the undead rise and Agrias draws her - not her sword, some other sword that Reis has never seen but disgusts and disturbs her just by its very presence. She is not even particularly sensitive and she can feel that it is wrong. Ruklegos can, too; he bristles even more than he was before and attempts to simultaneously stand in front of Reis (to protect her) and behind her (to save himself). He eventually settles on 'in front'.
Reis doesn't want to do this. But that is not Agrias, or at least not the Agrias she knows and wants to speak to and owes a debt of honour. She breathes in, then out, then in again - and this time when she exhales, it is streamers of brilliantly white and pale blue energy. Whenever two or more of the streams cross, a burst of holy energy erupts; Reis has no control over just where they go, but she is aiming into the crowd of undead more than at Agrias, and many of the ribbons simply arc around her. Even now she feels that just the presence of this energy might bring Agrias back to her senses. Some burst nearby... but none on her.
That blade! It's back! There's a gasp from Gwen as Agrias somehow draws upon the supposedly-destroyed sword, bringing back into this world. "Oghma have mercy..." she utters, lost for a moment in her shock.
"There are stronger powers than oblivion, than death! Captain Oaks, do not force me to demonstrate," Gwen hisses as the death crawl up from their graves. There's a quick glance at the assembled throng, and she pulls back the flap of her satchel and quickly reachs into it. There's a soft clink of glass against glass from within as her hand closes around something, and withdraws. It's nothing more than a scroll, tied with a bit of string.
A sidelong look is cast towards Simon, coupled by a brief expression of doubt on the diviner's part. "Captain Parker? I apologize in advance," she says simply, drawing her knife, and cutting the string open. Unrolling the parchment, Gwen quickly scans the arcane script, then utters a few words. A luminous aura surrounds all her allies for a moment, then fades from sight; that is, all her allies except Parker. He might suddenly feel somewhat repulsed by a holy aura around the others. Of course, the scroll crumbles to dust.
Gwen Meynolt buffs Cameron Mitchell's AGI to +2.
Gwen Meynolt buffs Reis Duelar's AGI to +2.
Gwen Meynolt buffs Meliadoul Tengille's AGI to +2.
Gwen Meynolt buffs Zack Fair's AGI to +2.
Gwen Meynolt buffs Christoph Schmidt's AGI to +2.
Gwen Meynolt buffs her AGI to +2.
"..." Zack wants to look away. He does, desperately, and yet his own stubborn, curious fascination keeps his eyes glued to her, to what she does, and then as winter rounds the bend all hell, it seems, has both broken loose and frozen over, in some kind of cosmic theological irony. "No way.." he half-breathes, gritting his teeth at the sudden blast of cold, his eyes squinting against the wind as he witnesses, well...
Something he definitely hadn't wanted to see.
Perhaps lost in the wind or the crash of so many rising from their shallow graves is a curse, and the SOLDIER reaches back to draw the Buster Sword, stepping immediately over towards Gwen and Reis (and Ruklegos, who gets a brief look), the blade held outwards and upwards- a defensive stance. "I don't really want to fight her," he admits to the others, "But I'll sure as hell get rid of those guys!" The dead should stay dead!
... unless, of course, they're people he really likes, like Angeal and Sephiroth and...
... yeah, anyway.
"Hang in there, Captain Oaks," he says more boldly now, furrowing his brows at the thing-wearing-her-body, "Don't give up, no matter what! I know you'll do your best, and it doesn't matter if it's not enough on your own- You're not alone, and so trust us, okay? We'll take care of the rest!!" He turns slightly, looking to his left. "Isn't that right?"
He's not actually asking Ruklegos, even if he's kind of.. right there.
Okay, this situation is getting pretty hairy. There's like, dead people becoming somewhat less dead, and that in Mitchell's - admittedly limited, so far as the living dead go - experience is not a good thing. He has watched a lot of movies about this stuff, y'know. So, to him at least, it becomes less a question of the fun attempts to restore Agrias to her senses than it does of them not dying at the hands of the restless dead.
So, Mitchell does some quick math: If Agrias, whatever she is in her current state, has summoned these things, then taking her out will either a) get rid of them or b) send them into some kind of a berserker rage. Call it a coin toss, then. Fifty fifty chance.
Cam likes those odds.
"Man, to hell with this," Mitchell says, and the Zat'nik'tel goes from 'pointed generally at Agrias' to 'pointed right at her face'. "Sleep it off, Oaks." Yes, it's a classic action movie one-liner, that surely presages the heroic completion of their task, as Mitchell presses the trigger on the weird-looking pistol he's holding, and a bolt of crackling energy, enough to knock most people out cold, tears through the air at Agrias.
Mitchell's gonna be real sore when it doesn't work.
Reis Duelar says, "I don't think I can do that twice right now..."
Meliadoul Tengille grunts, "Do not overtax yourself Lady Duelar. We...Did that man just shoot Oaks in the face?"
"O ye of little faith." Agrias laughs, but the sound is sadistic and chillignly unlike her. She lets Rimehowl hang at her side, the blade practically reeking of something fundamentally wrong. "Dost thou think that for their unliving nature, they are any less of soldiers?" She chuckles again and shakes her head, as though genuinely amused. "Nay, demon."
She advances a step, swaying over her crippled leg. Another step, and she's facing Christoph, though still a fair distance from any of her former allies.
"Such rightness means little when ye have not the strength to uphold such a claim." She smiles that chilling little smile at christoph, raising Rimehowl to point at him with its light-swallowing, black tip. "And ye have not the strength, Sergeant."
There's a moment's distraction as Reis breathes chaos into her orderless ranks, several of the dead screaming in silence and clutching at their blackened remains, crisping and charring in the light of the holy energies. They collapse, useless. Strangely, Agrias seems not to react at all, merely tilting her chin down a bit as she watches blackened bones collapse in heaps. Her eyes turn towards Reis again.
"Thy body shall replace that which you have destroyed," she says simply, with a certain finality. You're going to pay for what you wrecked, and you're going to do that by taking their place. And your little dragon-dog, too.
To Cameron, she glances as he starts to talk. Corpse-yellow eyes narrow as he raises his weapon. Energy rips through the air before she has time to react, but - despite this, it seems she doesn't. She lets the energy rip right on past her face, evidently taking a piece of it with it; her head snapping to the side with the ferocity of the blow.
And when it passes, she simply straightens her head, casting him the same look she had cast to Reis. "And thou," she adds, in a flat tone. "For thy insolence."
She turns, then, to face the greater majority of them, gripping Rimehowl, but not quite rising the cursed blade just yet.
"And the rest of ye. Such meager power thy display. Dost thou think thy victory will be at hand, this eve? Nay, it shall not be." She shakes her head, letting Rimehowl fall. "Nay. All is given unto death. It is the mightiest of powers in this world; surer than time, more powerful than the crushing depths of the sea."
She raises Rimehowl again, in the same challenge she had held with Defender only moments before - but this time, it's considerably more chilling; more... wrong.
"Come ye, that I would show thee true power!" Her eyes blaze with that fel blue light, as do her miniature legion. They raise their weapons and issue their warcries in silence, but they don't advance; not without their mistress' word. "Come ye, that I would raise thy fallen corpses and further its ranks. 'Tis all the fate thou hast in store."
"Come ye, that ye may yet join with the Scourge...!"
A blast of wind howls through the ruins again, screaming.
The power of light surges through Meliadoul's body as Gwen's spell takes effect. Her lips curl into an angry snarl. "You will not lay a hand upon Lady Duelar. On that, I do swear." She flicks her hand and Defender flies up into the air before she grasps the heavy Knight Sword by it's hilt. Armed with both spear and sword now, the templar roars her defiance.
"Death is fleeting." She grins viciously, "The will of God Almighty surpasses even that of your precious power." She snarls as Cameron's bolt flies straight into Agrias's face and the woman tanks it. Clearly it is on now. Sorry Zack. Sorry Reis. The time for talk is over.
"RELEASE HER FOUL CREATURE!" The woman shouts as she breaks out into a dead run, only to thrust the hardened spear point straight at the turned Knight.
Meliadoul Tengille gets a glancing blow on Agrias Oaks with her Give her back! attack.
You take 10 damage.
Simon winces as Oaks takes that hit, despite himself. The tiny part of him that still respects his commander is screaming, wailing in horror at the sight of all this-but it's quickly put aside, and silenced.
Parker's face tightens into a mask of determination, and he says two words under his breath.
"Get her."
Then he springs into action, charging the newborn Death Knight with a cry of rage on his lips. He brings the Bloody-Handed Judge up in a vicious swipe, aiming to cleave Agrias' chest open across the diagonal-but it's a feint, distracting her from the true attack... a vicious kick to her wounded leg. Parker is not above exploiting his foes' weaknesses, if the circumstances are dire.
Simon Parker misses Agrias Oaks with his KNEECAPPED attack.
Where: House Oaks - Kingdom of Ivalice - Fantasy Sector
When: 03 September 2008
What: Having tracked down their fledgling Death Knight, the IPA prepares to take in the wayward Captain and restore her to her former self. Unfortunately, things don't really go as planned, and all Hell breaks loose - literally.
Watch For: The buffer, it weeps.
Fantasy Sector - Lesalia Imperial Capital
Lesalia Imperial Capital lay at the heart of Ivalice, in the central province of Lesalia. It is among the largest cities of this medieval kingdom, as well as one of the most ancient. The city has closely-packed houses, made of timber and sloped roofs, that hug to winding narrow streets. At the center of the city is an immense castle - the palace of the Ivalician royal family. It also houses the Senate, and countless nobles.
Contents:
Christoph Schmidt
Reis Duelar
Cameron Mitchell
Zack Fair
Gwen Meynolt
Meliadoul Tengille
Simon Parker
Obvious exits:
Northeast leads to Fantasy Sector - Nelveska Temple.
Rumours abound lately in southwestern Lesalia of a strange woman travelling the roads. They say she seems to have a specific destination in mind, keeping ever towards the west and southwest of the province. A knight of some sort, many of these stories agree on. Her description matches the missing Captain of the Vanguard Detachment.
Ran through the last brigands that approached her, one thief reports, wide-eyed. Killed me brother, she did; she ran Ruan through like a stuck pig and watched him bleed out on the road. Rest of us did the smart thing, we did, we runs away as far and fast as our legs take us.
One thing is certain in every story. She travels steadily southwest, as though for a specific destination. So - the woman makes for the estate of Lord Argus Oaks, last man to own this land in several years, now in ruins and neglect since the entire family's death. Tragic, local passers-by comment. They seemed so devout.
And that seems to be where Agrias Oaks, last living scion of the Oaks bloodline and wayward Captain of the Vanguard Detachment, has gone.
The ruins themselves are run-down nearly to nothing, yet somehow peaceful. Suggestions of walls lie amid untidy heaps of earth. Greenery runs rampant, here, where nature has begun to take back the broken citadel. Occasionally, things can be seen half-buried in the loam and loose soil - bones, ruined chocobo tack, rusted and useless weapons. It seems the bannermen, house knights, and family of the Oaks estate did try to put up a fight, but were not successful - many of these things are burnt, some nearly beyond recognition.
The Holy Knight herself is in the centre of the ruins, the tattered green cloak of her disguise two days' past hanging limp about her shoulders. Her head is bowed, her hands listless at her side. The grounds are silent as the grave, and she does seem to be paying some slight attention to her surroundings - but most of her attention seems to be on whatever she's speaking.
"Hearken to me, my bannermen, my house knights, my lord father, my lord brothers, my lady mother..." Her voice doesn't sound itself at all, a dry rasp, like a death-rattle. "I do what I do not for having lost my faith or my way."
"I have found my way," she continues, as though reasoning with someone right there. "I serve now a new master. Thy servitude under my command shall not be an unwholesome thing. Thou shalt serve the greatest of masters, in this way, and thy payment shall be an existence unending! Thou shalt not die, nor shalt thou weaken, or lose thy endurance..."
It seems nonsense - she speaks to nothing but ghosts. Nobody else is present in the grounds around her but the bones of the bannermen; the house knights, her family. Agrias continues, her voice still that unearthly rasp.
"Thou shalt find that I am not an unreasonable master. Raise," she urges, "that there may be a suitable foundation to this fledgling army. Raise, that we might show my Lord the Lich King what power we may wield, and turn on those enemies of the Scourge..."
She pauses, as though listening to something, and her expression seems to darken faintly. "Thy resistance is admirable, but pointless. Thou shalt be in mine command, in the end."
There's another pause, and her expression seems to turn speculative. "Now that is interesting." She looks sideways, but she doesn't seem to see. The look in her eyes - now a distressing corpse-yellow, her face a mask of deathly, ashen pallor - seems far distant. "Where is Crevan...?"
Simon was here, not quite two weeks ago, talking with Agrias about her family. Small irony that he's returned in such a short span, to keep his former Captain from doing Hell-knows-what in this forsaken place.
The acting acting Captain of the Vanguard Detachment leads the procession on his chocobo, Octavian. He's wearing a long, plain cloak over his combat gear to draw less attention from the locals, but beneath it, he's armed to the teeth. Oaks fought like a monster, and if anything she's probably gotten worse since their last confrontation.
The demon dismounts a goodly distance from the remains of House Oaks, leaving Octavian to his own devices-Parker's got Gysahl Greens, and can lure the neurotic chocobo back once the fight's over. If you're still alive, says the little pessimistic voice in the back of his head.
"Nonsense," Parker says aloud. "Go on, shoo," he says, waving Octavian off. He then trudges through the grass, drawing his gun as he moves. He makes no attempt to try and surprise Agrias-he simply walks up to her, stares into those horrible corpse-yellow eyes, and snarls. "Oaks. This has gone on for long enough. Come back to your senses, or we'll beat you until you do."
Christoph lowers his hand, lowers it to rest on the hilt of his sword. It may be unsubtle, but really, everyone can feel the tension brewing already. This is unlikely to resolve quietly, and politeness at this juncture really is wasted. And after that last fight, he knows he has to be ready for many different scenarios, all of them violent.
He speaks now. "Did not expect peace," he says resignedly, almost mournfully. "Just offering respect. Für Hauptmann Oaks. Lich König, however, can go suck on his own privates. Expect that would be the most fun he had since finding the dead sheep." What's politeness?
He waves a hand, and a floating, glowing screen pops into being next to him. Midchildan script starts to fill it, and he squints slightly, reading. "According to this, Glabados took the...deed to Oaks estate. Similar to housing crisis in that one country, on Earth-named world. Banks, ah, foreclosing on...wie sagt man...mortgage." He tilts his head thoughtfully. "Suppose we are still trespassing, then, did not as Glabados for permission. But then...you are too." The terminal is banished with a wave of the hand.
He offered his respects with the salute. And now he's taking it all back. Get her angry. Make her fight stupid. A time-honored tactic employed by many over the years, one familiar to Christoph in his time in Section 9 and now in IPA SWAT. Of course, people fighting angry and stupid also can hurt more, but....
Note! Agrias can no longer hear messages on these frequencies from this point on, but the communication has been left intact for the purposes of logging.
Captain Simon Parker says, "Get ready."
Factotum Gwen Meynolt says, "Yes."
Master Sergeant Christoph Schmidt says, "Ready."
Captain Simon Parker says, "She's not going to budge. We'll have to take her by force."
Zack Fair says, "....."
Reis Duelar says, "Let me first - please."
Captain Simon Parker says, "You're welcome to try, but that thing has its claws in her brain."
Zack Fair says, "Let her try! You never know..."
It's amazing how quickly a hydra grows. Meliadoul would have remarked upon it but there are more pressing matters at hand. Hearing Agrias like this, is a little creepy. Meliadoul is used to the other knight responding with a hot retort, something sharp, borderline cruel even. That is the nature of their relationship. But this... The lance is prepped into a charging situation and she keeps her eyes on former Holy Knight. "The Frozen North holds no sway here Oaks. You do not have Sunderland's power, even as you claim that he is weak. The dead do not answer your call." She pauses for a moment, allowing the silence from the graves to support her accusation. "Do you not see? They resist you and the twisted creature that you have become."
Her lips curl slightly as she moves her gaze to Defender, "Do you not see your sword? It no longer glows with the power you once held. Even your own blade has forsaken you Agrias Oaks. Stop this foolishness and reclaim what was once rightfully yours." She sets her feet apart and shakes her head a little. She knows nothing of this Arthas fellow but it does not surprise her that the Church laid claim to this land.
"This is not your home any longer Agrias," her voice drops, losing it's edge. "Your home is with us, in the Hub, by Ovelia's side. It is not too late. The fate of Folmarv Tengille need not be your fate as well."
"I have business," Reis says, her heart in her throat; the nervousness in her voice is obvious to anyone who hears it. "I would - speak with you, if I could. Even if you do not want to hear it. It is important to me - please..."
She swallows. Ruklegos growls at her side; she rests her hand on one of his three heads, and he quiets, although does not become any more calm. The others are antagonizing her. She wishes they didn't, not for a few minutes, so she can talk...
"You are - you - you helped me once," Reis says, not sure how to put it. "You are a good person. You are, you did all that because I was in trouble, not for any reason - we'd never met before. And you aren't now; you wouldn't do - what you did. Please - please, come with me, let me help you the way you helped me. I don't have a weapon, and I swear that if you do come peacefully, none of them will hurt you, either."
Meliadoul Tengille growls quietly.
Reis Duelar says, "If she comes - don't. Don't hurt her."
Meliadoul Tengille says, "You have my word Lady Duelar."
Master Sergeant Christoph Schmidt says, "Would be nice if soft touch works."
Captain Simon Parker says, "If she comes willingly."
Gwen's eyes run over the fallen knight as she speaks, desperately seeking some sort of hint that Agrias she had known, if only professionally, is there. Instead, so it seems, there's just this being, as cruel and twisted as Sunderland was. "No, Captain," she says finally, shaking her head, "I am afraid we cannot withdraw." There's a glance over at Cristoph as he pulls up something she can't read from here, and at his findings, can't help but smile, albeit a touch sadly. "...Ah. Our trespass, then, is simply to cease your own, Captain Oaks."
Her hand slowly reaches down towards the buckles on her satchel, and she begins to work them open. "...Allow the dead their peace, Captain," she says, hoping for a peaceful resolution even as she makes to prepare for battle, her brown eyes locked on Agrias' dead yellow, "They would not wish to walk the land again in torment. Surely, you, a paladin, must understand that...? Set your blade aside. As Lady Reis says... we do not wish for conflict."
Reis Duelar says, "If it lets her, she will. If it doesn't - I'll - do what I did before, to the other cursed things."
Factotum Gwen Meynolt begins to mutter something that sounds like a prayer.
Whether Zack caught that momentary pause or not is hard to tell- he looks fairly dismayed either way. It isn't quite the same as Eleven- it isn't obvious who is in control, to him, which makes things more complicated, and frankly, Zack doesn't like dealing with complicated. "...." And so he turns his gaze away, down towards the ground, his expression clearly troubled.
He only lifts his head as Simon speaks again, watching the man with some amount of confusion, and he attempts not to look just slightly offended. "It isn't her fault," he protests, but falls silent, furrowing his brows. Okay, fine, let them say what they want, if it makes them feel better, but really, it isn't her fault! He refuses to believe it is!
Thankfully Reis has some idea more along the lines of his own- even if he'd probably not be able to say it so well, obviously. "Yeah," he confirms, nodding his head, "You don't need a king or whatever to tell you what to do! You'd probably scare him anyway when you got mad, so... come back with the people who are used to it, right?"
He's trying to help, really.
Meliadoul Tengille !
Cameron Mitchell says, "I can knock her out pretty fast, comes down to it."
Meliadoul Tengille says, "You... but I thought we put away all the stones..."
Master Sergeant Christoph Schmidt says, "...Steine? Stones?"
Reis Duelar says, "Not that!"
Reis Duelar says, "I would not carry one!"
Meliadoul Tengille sighs in relief.
Master Sergeant Christoph Schmidt says, "Ach. Gut."
Yeah, really, Cameron's not too sold on this 'talking her down' plan, but if it works, great. The Lieutenant Colonel, however, is prepared with a backup plan of his own, because while others might be trying to convince Agrias that they're not armed... Mitchell is very much so. "Sure," he twangs from the back. "Listen to these guys, they've got your best interests at heart." Uh, he thinks. He's not really sure what, if anything, is going on in Zack's head.
But, Mitchell's hand creeps down to his right thigh, where his sidearm would normally be strapped into place; in its stead is a weird-looking object, that Cam pulls free from its holster, gripping it like some sort of pistol as the top portion unfolds with a click and a quiet whine, like something powering up. "So let's all head back somewhere nice an' quiet and talk this over with a big steaming mug of hot chocolate." Before he has to shoot you with an alien technology knockout gun, Agrias. Cameron smiles his winningest smile at this point, trying to come across as sincere as he adds: "With marshmallows."
He is, however, pointing that weird-looking gun in Agrias' direction. Paranoid much?
"How pathetic mortals are." Agrias shakes her head as though in pity. Her face twists into a sadistic smile, though, pale lips pressed thin. "Thy defiance will be crushed. Valianelty ye fight against such a force, but there is no power in this world or the next to equal it. Death is all-consuming. It is true power."
She glances over towards the next person to speak. That would be Christoph, to whom she casts a flat gaze, as though disinterested in what he has to say. "Glabados will never own this soil. It belongs to Oaks blood, by right." It's as simple as that, by the sound of her tone. "I will purge this world of their every last trace," she adds, in a more commanding tone of voice.
"Hmm." Silence falls, and she stares the Knight Templar down for a moment. "No power does the Lich King hold here? Of course He does. As for Sunderland... as I said, he was weak. And for his weakness did he pay the price." She gives a small, dismissive sound. "The Scourge does not fain tolerate weakness. It has no place."
Rightfully hers? The words seem to give Agrias pause for a moment, thoughtful, and perhaps her allies might feel a bit of hope. But that hope is likely dashed when she speaks again.
"The Lich King is now the rightful owner of these lands." She narrows those corpse-yellow eyes. "Doubt ye that I hast the power to raise all who served here? All who have perished, here?"
The wind seems to take a turn for the worse, shrieking as it rounds the crumbled masonry. It brings winter with it, leaving a sheath of ice over stone and greenery.
Even before the icy kiss of the wind passes, several things happen at once.
"She does not believe," she states to the wind, as though speaking to someone.
Then we must see that she does, my Knight. The voice of the Lich King carries a note of triumph. One more to his name, thoroughly corrupted and carrying with her the will of the Scourge. I grant you the power to do what you must, for the Scourge...
"Verily, my Lord." Agrias kneels, as though reverently, answering an unheard voice. She turns again to face the assembly, shifting her grip on Defender's hilt.
"Thou art correct, Knight of Green." Agrias smiles a sadistic little smile towards Meliadoul, and in a sudden motion, she flings the anointed blade towards her former ally; a vicious strike. "Take yon blade, then, and deliver it unto those who would have a care for such paltry things. I've a better blade to my hand."
"Rimehowl!"
At the sound of the name, the wind howls and shrieks through the open stones, gale-force winds nearly sharp enough to knock over the unprepared. The winds carry ice with them, quickly frosting over the ground that isn't protected by greenery in some form or another, but even the greenery is soon frozen; sheathed in ice.
Agrias kneels, whisking off the gauntlet of her right hand - the skin now corpse-pale - and bringing a fist crashing into the frozen earth. She strikes one more time, seeing that her knuckle is made ragged by the blow. From there she tilts her hand, letting a drop of the blood spill onto the snow, blossoming.
The drop shimmers, warping and twisting, expanding impossibly into an elongated shape. Steam billows from the strange mass, and Agrias reaches into the steam, seemingly without regard for her unprotected hand.
From the steam she draws the thing that they had supposedly destroyed - the runeblade, Rimehowl, black as the abyss and shot through with glowing blue runes. Rimehowl, the hated, cursed weapon, still steaming from the touch of Agrias' own tainted blood.
"To me, spirits of House Oaks!" Agrias rises and lifts Rimehowl aloft in the same motion, her voice a commanding, unearthly bellow. "To me, my bannermen! To me, my kith and kin! Thou shalt serve one last time, one last eternal span! Thou shalt become as one with the Scourge, united 'neath the rule of the Lich King, the Lord of the Frozen North!"
The reaction is almost instantaneous.
Buried bones rattle underfoot. Charred, rusted weapons shudder from their half-buried positions. The earth seems to burst in half a hundred places, lightly-armoured soldiers pushing their way free of the earth. Little remains of many of them; charred bones and equipment, with nothing left to identify them by - bannermen and house knights, for the most part.
Some are ghosts, with no corporeal form left, looking as they did in death and bearing horrible wounds, burns, and the occasional axe or sword through the head. Their spirit-weapons are sharp enough, though, and those are carried with them.
Slowly, they assemble and rally behind Agrias, each skull bearing the brilliant cyan glow of the Scourge, that same fel blue light spilling from their open mouths as their heads tilt back, jaws falling open in a silent warcry. Yet among them, none of them yet seem to bear the features of Oaks blood - her kinsmen, perhaps, still resist...
Agrias' own eyes are now glowing blue, as well, that brilliant, fel taint of the Scourge. She smiles, sadistically, pointing the light-swallowing blade at her former allies.
"I grant thee one last chance."
One last gust of wind rips through the ruins, shrieking and howling like one dying.
"Willst thou surrender? Willst thou join the Scourge willingly? Or must I battle, and prove to thee the might of the Lich King?"
You switch armor modes to Death Knight.
"...Hell."
That's all Simon Parker says as the earth tears itself asunder, the bones of the fallen rising and reassembling themselves en masse. His face pales, and the sudden display of necromantic power shrieks like a banshee in his ears; for a few seconds, Parker looks like he wants to vomit, but the feeling passes quickly enough. "So you have a small army," Parker says. He holsters his gun, and extends an arm. He angles it downwards; there's the slow, deliberate metallic hiss of a blade sliding out of a sheath, somewhere. Only this blade is far too large to be concealed up that sleeve-yet it is, somehow.
The demon holds the Bloody-Handed Judge with white-knuckled hands, the weapon-chain jingling. "Corpses can't replace the living. Don't make me demonstrate."
"Es gibt keine Eichen. There are no Oaks right now. The last one went away. You wear her face, but you are not an Oaks." Christoph slides his hand down to grip Balmung securely, though does not draw his blade yet. "She might return. Maybe. But she is not hier, not right now. If not to Glabados, then to no one, this land."
He then shakes his head, looking faintly disgusted...or maybe just tired of hearing about the Lich King. "'Rightful' means legitimate. Don't think that is the case. As I said, Lich König...." He makes a rather obscene gesture, or at least an obscene one in his world, one which means...well, what his suggestion was earlier.
But despite his almost laid-back attitude about all of this, he cannot help but widen his eyes when Agrias intones the name of that broken blade. But it was.... "Ach," he mutters, watching her punch the earth, hard, in order to retrieve the accursed thing. Now he draws the blade, now he begins to move forward-but the chill wind pushes him back. Despite not being a gale force, it somehow has the strength to hold him in place, unable to advance more than a step or two. He raises his left hand to shield his eyes from the biting cold.
And when it dies down, there is more than just Agrias to face. "Donnerwetter," he mutters darkly, looking askance at the instant army. "You already know the answer, woman." He shifts now into an undisguised battle stance, holding Balmung high, ready to charge.
And why WOULD Meliadoul believe? Just because some stupid voice in Agrias's head is telling her to? Pffft. But then the unexpected happens. Defender comes flying straight for her. To her credit, she does not duck nor does she parry. Instead, a plate covered hand reaches up and catches the heavy sword by its blade. The sharp edge crunches along the mail, but does not cut the Templar. Her lips open to say more but then the wind howls and brings with it an ice storm.
She raises her arm to her eyes, shielding her face from the sudden drop in temperature, missing the drop of blood that falls to the ground. But the formation of Rimehowl does not escape her notice. "Tch! Lady Duelar!" She shouts to Reis as her right arm brings the sword up to a ready position.
The ground rumbles and bones black with dirt and ash rise and never once in her entire life has Meliadoul ever seen such a sight. "God have mercy on us," she whispers, as she feels true fear for the first time since the incident with the Zodiac stone. Her eyes turn to Agrias then, fear and anger warring for a place in her expression. She swallows hard and shifts her grip, still holding Defender by it's blade. "Nay. We will not surrender. Not until we purge you of this foulness that has tainted your soul."
"My God..."
For one instant, Reis looks as pale as Agrias does, but in her case it's just fear and disgust as the undead rise and Agrias draws her - not her sword, some other sword that Reis has never seen but disgusts and disturbs her just by its very presence. She is not even particularly sensitive and she can feel that it is wrong. Ruklegos can, too; he bristles even more than he was before and attempts to simultaneously stand in front of Reis (to protect her) and behind her (to save himself). He eventually settles on 'in front'.
Reis doesn't want to do this. But that is not Agrias, or at least not the Agrias she knows and wants to speak to and owes a debt of honour. She breathes in, then out, then in again - and this time when she exhales, it is streamers of brilliantly white and pale blue energy. Whenever two or more of the streams cross, a burst of holy energy erupts; Reis has no control over just where they go, but she is aiming into the crowd of undead more than at Agrias, and many of the ribbons simply arc around her. Even now she feels that just the presence of this energy might bring Agrias back to her senses. Some burst nearby... but none on her.
That blade! It's back! There's a gasp from Gwen as Agrias somehow draws upon the supposedly-destroyed sword, bringing back into this world. "Oghma have mercy..." she utters, lost for a moment in her shock.
"There are stronger powers than oblivion, than death! Captain Oaks, do not force me to demonstrate," Gwen hisses as the death crawl up from their graves. There's a quick glance at the assembled throng, and she pulls back the flap of her satchel and quickly reachs into it. There's a soft clink of glass against glass from within as her hand closes around something, and withdraws. It's nothing more than a scroll, tied with a bit of string.
A sidelong look is cast towards Simon, coupled by a brief expression of doubt on the diviner's part. "Captain Parker? I apologize in advance," she says simply, drawing her knife, and cutting the string open. Unrolling the parchment, Gwen quickly scans the arcane script, then utters a few words. A luminous aura surrounds all her allies for a moment, then fades from sight; that is, all her allies except Parker. He might suddenly feel somewhat repulsed by a holy aura around the others. Of course, the scroll crumbles to dust.
Gwen Meynolt buffs Cameron Mitchell's AGI to +2.
Gwen Meynolt buffs Reis Duelar's AGI to +2.
Gwen Meynolt buffs Meliadoul Tengille's AGI to +2.
Gwen Meynolt buffs Zack Fair's AGI to +2.
Gwen Meynolt buffs Christoph Schmidt's AGI to +2.
Gwen Meynolt buffs her AGI to +2.
"..." Zack wants to look away. He does, desperately, and yet his own stubborn, curious fascination keeps his eyes glued to her, to what she does, and then as winter rounds the bend all hell, it seems, has both broken loose and frozen over, in some kind of cosmic theological irony. "No way.." he half-breathes, gritting his teeth at the sudden blast of cold, his eyes squinting against the wind as he witnesses, well...
Something he definitely hadn't wanted to see.
Perhaps lost in the wind or the crash of so many rising from their shallow graves is a curse, and the SOLDIER reaches back to draw the Buster Sword, stepping immediately over towards Gwen and Reis (and Ruklegos, who gets a brief look), the blade held outwards and upwards- a defensive stance. "I don't really want to fight her," he admits to the others, "But I'll sure as hell get rid of those guys!" The dead should stay dead!
... unless, of course, they're people he really likes, like Angeal and Sephiroth and...
... yeah, anyway.
"Hang in there, Captain Oaks," he says more boldly now, furrowing his brows at the thing-wearing-her-body, "Don't give up, no matter what! I know you'll do your best, and it doesn't matter if it's not enough on your own- You're not alone, and so trust us, okay? We'll take care of the rest!!" He turns slightly, looking to his left. "Isn't that right?"
He's not actually asking Ruklegos, even if he's kind of.. right there.
Okay, this situation is getting pretty hairy. There's like, dead people becoming somewhat less dead, and that in Mitchell's - admittedly limited, so far as the living dead go - experience is not a good thing. He has watched a lot of movies about this stuff, y'know. So, to him at least, it becomes less a question of the fun attempts to restore Agrias to her senses than it does of them not dying at the hands of the restless dead.
So, Mitchell does some quick math: If Agrias, whatever she is in her current state, has summoned these things, then taking her out will either a) get rid of them or b) send them into some kind of a berserker rage. Call it a coin toss, then. Fifty fifty chance.
Cam likes those odds.
"Man, to hell with this," Mitchell says, and the Zat'nik'tel goes from 'pointed generally at Agrias' to 'pointed right at her face'. "Sleep it off, Oaks." Yes, it's a classic action movie one-liner, that surely presages the heroic completion of their task, as Mitchell presses the trigger on the weird-looking pistol he's holding, and a bolt of crackling energy, enough to knock most people out cold, tears through the air at Agrias.
Mitchell's gonna be real sore when it doesn't work.
Reis Duelar says, "I don't think I can do that twice right now..."
Meliadoul Tengille grunts, "Do not overtax yourself Lady Duelar. We...Did that man just shoot Oaks in the face?"
"O ye of little faith." Agrias laughs, but the sound is sadistic and chillignly unlike her. She lets Rimehowl hang at her side, the blade practically reeking of something fundamentally wrong. "Dost thou think that for their unliving nature, they are any less of soldiers?" She chuckles again and shakes her head, as though genuinely amused. "Nay, demon."
She advances a step, swaying over her crippled leg. Another step, and she's facing Christoph, though still a fair distance from any of her former allies.
"Such rightness means little when ye have not the strength to uphold such a claim." She smiles that chilling little smile at christoph, raising Rimehowl to point at him with its light-swallowing, black tip. "And ye have not the strength, Sergeant."
There's a moment's distraction as Reis breathes chaos into her orderless ranks, several of the dead screaming in silence and clutching at their blackened remains, crisping and charring in the light of the holy energies. They collapse, useless. Strangely, Agrias seems not to react at all, merely tilting her chin down a bit as she watches blackened bones collapse in heaps. Her eyes turn towards Reis again.
"Thy body shall replace that which you have destroyed," she says simply, with a certain finality. You're going to pay for what you wrecked, and you're going to do that by taking their place. And your little dragon-dog, too.
To Cameron, she glances as he starts to talk. Corpse-yellow eyes narrow as he raises his weapon. Energy rips through the air before she has time to react, but - despite this, it seems she doesn't. She lets the energy rip right on past her face, evidently taking a piece of it with it; her head snapping to the side with the ferocity of the blow.
And when it passes, she simply straightens her head, casting him the same look she had cast to Reis. "And thou," she adds, in a flat tone. "For thy insolence."
She turns, then, to face the greater majority of them, gripping Rimehowl, but not quite rising the cursed blade just yet.
"And the rest of ye. Such meager power thy display. Dost thou think thy victory will be at hand, this eve? Nay, it shall not be." She shakes her head, letting Rimehowl fall. "Nay. All is given unto death. It is the mightiest of powers in this world; surer than time, more powerful than the crushing depths of the sea."
She raises Rimehowl again, in the same challenge she had held with Defender only moments before - but this time, it's considerably more chilling; more... wrong.
"Come ye, that I would show thee true power!" Her eyes blaze with that fel blue light, as do her miniature legion. They raise their weapons and issue their warcries in silence, but they don't advance; not without their mistress' word. "Come ye, that I would raise thy fallen corpses and further its ranks. 'Tis all the fate thou hast in store."
"Come ye, that ye may yet join with the Scourge...!"
A blast of wind howls through the ruins again, screaming.
The power of light surges through Meliadoul's body as Gwen's spell takes effect. Her lips curl into an angry snarl. "You will not lay a hand upon Lady Duelar. On that, I do swear." She flicks her hand and Defender flies up into the air before she grasps the heavy Knight Sword by it's hilt. Armed with both spear and sword now, the templar roars her defiance.
"Death is fleeting." She grins viciously, "The will of God Almighty surpasses even that of your precious power." She snarls as Cameron's bolt flies straight into Agrias's face and the woman tanks it. Clearly it is on now. Sorry Zack. Sorry Reis. The time for talk is over.
"RELEASE HER FOUL CREATURE!" The woman shouts as she breaks out into a dead run, only to thrust the hardened spear point straight at the turned Knight.
Meliadoul Tengille gets a glancing blow on Agrias Oaks with her Give her back! attack.
You take 10 damage.
Simon winces as Oaks takes that hit, despite himself. The tiny part of him that still respects his commander is screaming, wailing in horror at the sight of all this-but it's quickly put aside, and silenced.
Parker's face tightens into a mask of determination, and he says two words under his breath.
"Get her."
Then he springs into action, charging the newborn Death Knight with a cry of rage on his lips. He brings the Bloody-Handed Judge up in a vicious swipe, aiming to cleave Agrias' chest open across the diagonal-but it's a feint, distracting her from the true attack... a vicious kick to her wounded leg. Parker is not above exploiting his foes' weaknesses, if the circumstances are dire.
Simon Parker misses Agrias Oaks with his KNEECAPPED attack.