ic A Gathering of Mages

[EternalPhoenix]

Effigy

 

Wilona let the fire erupt, and she barely tried to control it. She flew into the room in a rush of howling wind. “Fortius!” Her left hand slapped her sternum and the defensive force field snapped on. “Oooh, I’m so scared. The big bad zombie lady is gonna make me a zombie too. @#$% off, ^%$#@. Pyrus!” The non flyers on the floor felt the blast of heat as the fire blast leapt from her hand and spend for the Carrion Queen. “Undead are weak to fire! Those are the rules! So burn! Pyrus!”

 

Invisigirl

 

When the doors opened for everyone, Naomi was invisible again. So was the protection and banishment squad. She was also floating about fifteen feet off the floor on an invisible platform. There was nothing for her to say, and nothing for her to do. So she nabbed her art supplies. They were Very Important, after all, and then starting doing something kind of fun. Randomly turning members of the assault squad invisible. So that when they attacked, it came from seemingly nowhere. Or a counterattack that would have hit was mistargeted. She floated up a little higher and began to enjoy the show. It wasn’t every day a ancient evil got it’s butt kicked in front of her. Maybe she’d do some sketches later.

[Thevshi]

Veronica Danger

 

As the plan was set, Veronica had focused a few moments and she began to glow with golden mystical energy. It pulsed for a few moments and then spread out through the room, washing over all the others gathered as they were warded against the Carrion Queen’s necromantic magic.

 

As the doors were opened and the chaos in the main hall reveled, Veronica reached into her dimensional pocket and drew out her two climbing axes, wielding one in each hand. As she readied the climbing axes, she began shifting the nature of some of the gems embedded in the amulet around her neck and prepared to defend herself and the others that were going to be trying to banish the threat.

[angrydurf]

As plans went it wasn't bad even if Ouroboros was not particularly accustomed to working with others he wasn't blind to the benefits collaboration could offer.  "I'll need to get close keep her spending her power and we'll be able to overwhelm her."  his encouragement was perhaps a bit flat compared to some of the more boisterous members of their merry band of Magi.

 

He hung back slightly as the front line surged forward to challenge the queen directly.  He remained silent and focused as the carrion beetles swept forward the few to get past the fire and ice of his brethren crunching under his booted feet.  To those with a sense for such things they could feel the gathering mystic and dimensional energies as his will bent the spell into shape without work or gesture.  He looked little more threat than Cat-Sith as he examined the breach to identify exactly which underworld she had crawled up from.  The only hint of the building energies was th deepening darknes sin the palm of his hand as the Eye of Heshem thrummed with power.

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Heroditus quickly recovered form the wave of nausea that washed over him at Aquaria's opening display of power, and was soon running all about the chamber.  He had used components from his bandolier to construct a pair of bulky gauntlets, which he used to warp and weave the battlefield about them to best shield the defenders of this realm.  Floorboards curled up to swat beetles away.  Carpeting reared up and stiffened to steel hardness, bouncing back errant blasts from his teammates or deflecting attacks from the invader.  Bannisters and rails reared up and away from the stairway and slithered towards her, moving to wrap around her arms and head.

 

What else what else what else -- ah ha!

 

He ducked behind the bar and flung several bottles into the fray, then with a flick of his wrist made them explode.  The potent potables streaked towards the Carrion Queen -- hopefully increasing her susceptibility to Effigy's attacks -- while the glass and crystal shards flew towards and then encircled both Ouroboros and Phantom, providing them with some cover from attack but leaving their line of sight unimpeded. 

[Fox]

"Gross! Super gross," said Masque, following the others through the door and circling around to one side of the room. She didn't want to be the direct center of attention in this fight...but then, who did? "Your pets? Super gross. And, if I'm honest, I think we're feeling positively outnumbered. So here's a trick!"

 

She snapped her fingers, plucking a top hat out of thin air and placing it, tilted, on her head. "Straight from the streets, an old favorite," she said, twirling her staff; the mask was all grin, eyes aglow with mischief. "Keep your eye on the queen!"

 

Everyone in the room - every ally not invisible, anyway - flickered and split, surrounded by a copy or two of themselves that kept moving just out of sync with the original.

[Spacefurry]

Blackstaff 

 

Around his ice beetles continued to swarm, as flames from the young girl aimed at the Carrion Queen. Borrowing from her fire he drew threads of flames around the swarm, turning them aside into the attacks of the others.

From the corner of his attention he saw the young artificer warping the hotels floors and rails to defend others. The boy would probably need to apologize to the hotel later he thought with an internalized chuckle.

He could also feel the wards and protections of the other defenders as they settled over the gathered heroes. They were impressive and he would have to ask the caster about them later.

Raising his staff again he noticed the mirrored images of himself beside him and grinned.

“Now there’s a trick I haven’t used in ages.”

He felt the Queens magic raise and his attention refocused with razor clarity.

“No.”

His growl echoed from his images as the runes on each staff flared to life once again, his counter magic slamming into the Queen’s magic. It was an effort to actively dispel her magic before she could bring it to bare against his allies, but he was determined not to let pass if he could stop it.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Spacefurry

[Exaccus]

Oz allowed himself but a moment to take position, slamming his cane against the floor of the room with thunderous retort as he entered the fray, an estoric form of transmutation was the changing of energy from one form into another, often considered the field of those who evoked such forces Oz felt it fit more into his own school of focus.

 

with a thunderous incantation he transformed the sounds of the room into heat that bloomed into intense flames of scarlet and gold as the cacophony of beetles chittering,skittering and clacking their chitin mixed with the sound of battle-cries, incantations and telling blows filled the air, bending and directing the currents of energy away from his allies and towards his foe with his cane like a conductors baton, his other hand raised ready to deflect reprisal and shield his face from the heat and light of his own crescendo of fire that twisted itself into a braid and lashed at the foes around it, like a whip maid from a pair of entwined cyclones his construct danced and swayed like a snake as it fell upon its prey, drawing in and devouring with the voracious primal hunger that reduced entire worlds to ash.

 

gathering his strength for his next attack all the while.

[angrydurf]

Ouroboros stood resolute as the very building was raised in defense his focus growing more intense as the hungry energies in his palm roiled yearning to be loosed.  His mirrored forms reflected in upon themselves in the glinting wall of whirling glass and crystal unmoving and waiting.

 

"Wait for your moment."  he murmured to himself as one of the images seemed to fade between flashed of fire and eldritch power being loosed by his allies.  He'd been trained after all in more than the arts arcane his mother was known for.  He knew how to seize advantage and how to be patient on the hunt.

 

As the Carrion Queen wove her sickly spells deflecting attacks and lashing out at the other magi he crept ever closer.  Only when she was pressed to her limit did he strike.  As she redoubled her efforts and rent the fire and the flame with a wave of chill death he moved almost too fast for the eye to see.  

In a flash he stood before the fetid monstrosity resolute as he struck the heel of his hand slamming into her midsection the tendrils of void energies coruscating over her form and pulling her back to her realm with a vertigo twisting of time and space as she was cast out of this realm back to her pit.

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post
The room was filled with fire and ice as the bugs were boiled and frozen, or simply squashed, filling the room with another stench of decay to go with that of the Carrion Queen.

 

And even though she seem to discount the attack initially she quickly saw the building threat, first simply hold off foes with one hand whilst fighting the barrier, them with both throwing some of the mages away with telekinetic sweeps of her hands.

 

Drawing on her powers, weakened from crawling up through the lower dimensions, distracted her enough that Ouroboros stuck with unerring accuracy. She begun to fall backwards until the portal caught her dragging her back to her home dimension. As it did she scream, a scream of pure rage and frustration that chilled the hearts of all but the sternest of souls. She used no word but the intent was obvious, she would return…

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

And with that the room was silent as the magic released began to settle back into the aether. After a few seconds the ghostly staff began to renter the room, some coming from the literal woodwork. The hotel itself began to heal the damage to its structure, caused by friend and foes alike. Within a few hours, by the dawn of what was now All Saints Day, the hotel would look like nothing had happened on this night.

 

Except for those with the senses to see magical energies, for there was now a small tear into the fabric of reality, one that would take decades, if not centuries to heal. A weakness that would need to be guarded least something again attempted to enter Earth-Prime.

[Spacefurry]

Blackstaff poured everything he could into dispelling the Carrion Queen’s magic as she attempted to bring it to bare on his allies. He couldn’t stop everything she threw at them, he had his limits.

But thankfully, so did she. Everything he did manage to stop was more energy she wasted. There were just to many opponents for her to handle and she stretched her powers to thin. Even the hotel continued to press down on the outsider.

Suddenly, as if on cue, Ouroboros appeared before the Queen and struck out. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Carrion Queen fell back under his power. The portal caught her.

The cry of rage and hate echoed through the lobby of the old hotel. It sent a shiver down Blackstaff’s spine, but it wasn’t first time he’d heard it’s like. And even as the echoes faded and the portal closed he could still feel the presence of the tear. He couldn’t begin to guess how long it would take to fully heal, but perhaps he could look for a way to speed up the process.

 

The silence that followed hung heavy over the gathered heroes. Ghostly staff began to appear and set the room straight. Blackstaff was sure in little time, all traces of their battle would be erased. Except, of course for the invisible wound in the fabric of reality itself.

 

Walking over to Ouroboros had gave the Gatekeeper a friendly smile and offered him a handshake.

“Thank you. It was an honor to work beside you. If I can ever be of help you can find my office either here in Freedom or in Emerald City.”

 

Blackstaff moved to greet the Master Mage herself. He gave Phantom a courtesy nod, then a friendly smile.

“Greetings  Madam Phantom, my name is Christopher Daye. If I can ever be of service please don’t hesitate to call.”

He produced another card and held it out to Phantom.

 

He made his way around the gathered heroes, introducing himself and handing out cards.

 

He eventually made his way to Oz to check on the older mage. He gave the man a broad grin and patted him on the shoulder.

“We’ll have to get together again for a drink, hopefully without the reality threatening entity.”

He chuckled.

[EternalPhoenix]

Effigy and Invisigirl

 

Wilona had been throwing more fire than she had since the Terminus Invasion, and she was feeling it. Not fatigue. There wasn’t an apparent upper limit on how much fire she could generate as far as energy went. It was her right hand and to a lesser extent her arm. So much intense heat in such rapid succession was cooking them. She didn’t actually care, mind, but it was going to be an issue going forward. And then Ouroboros struck. The Carrion Queen clawed at the portal’s edges briefly, delaying her departure, and Wilona decided she’s officially had enough of the Evil Zombie Lady. Power surged through her as she taxed her output to its uppermost limits. “PYRUS! PYRUS MAXIMUS! BURN!” The blast of fire her right hand emitted bore no resemblance to previous emissions. That was fire. This was like she’d briefly opened a portal directly into the deepest pits of Hell or the heart of a star. Such was the blast of heat that roasted the lobby. Wilona technically missed. The Carrion Queen’s show of resistance was only that, a show. But the fire went through the portal right behind her before it closed. Wilona sagged, landing on the floor. She would have toppled over, but Naomi was there, physically supporting her, albeit staggering a little under her sudden weight.

 

Naomi shimmered back into visibility, as did everyone else. “We won, Wil.” She said quietly. “Now I think it’s burn doctor time again.” She raised her voice to what to other people would be a normal speaking volume but was practically yelling for her. “Um. Is there a doctor in the house?”

 

Wilona peeled off her right glove, wincing as it stuck briefly in several places. The skin was liberally peppered with burn scars, a few of them genuinely nasty. It was also showing all the signs of a full first degree burn, with spots that convincingly passed for the second degree. “Tch. I’m fine. Just gimme a minute.”

 

“No.” Naomi’s voice was surprisingly firm. She bent her knees just so Wilona’s would buckle briefly (before the exhausted girl caught herself), and then merely blew air over her hand.

 

 Wilona hissed in pain. “Tch, fine. Doctor, whatever.” To anyone watching, body language would give away that the two were closer than mere friends. What exactly that mean, however, was a mystery.

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria didn't so much shout after the retreating queen as detonate in a voice like thunder - "THIS IS YOUR GOD!? PATHETIC! EAT MY-" followed by Lemurian oaths as she realized for the first time just how badly she stunk. Her suit, covered in insect guts and rotting things, hissed with a noisy eruption of energy, then a moment later was ultra-clean. "Pfagh,"she commented from inside the suit, hopping away with shining black trident in hand. "But you see!? They thought they could take this world - but they were weak. And we were strong!" She struck her trident against the ground with an air of decisiveness.  

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Heroditus knew Parkhurst was fully capable of restoring itself, but what kind of budding civil engineer -- or responsible mechano-mystic -- would he be if he didn't help in the repair process?  He left the others to crow about their victory; a noble feat, to be sure, but not the sort of praise he sought.  He did, however, make time to share some parting words with a few of the other mages.

 

"It was an honor to be allowed here," he said with a bow to Phantom and Ouroboros, "and to see you both at work."  He saluted them both, fist over heart and then to temple.  "Though the role of Master Mage may have begun in Atlantis, it is good to see the Surface world has produced mages of equally exceptional skill, and that the Old Ways have not been forgotten." 

 

To Blackstaff, "I hope to meet with you again, sir, so that we may continue discussion of enchanted items, both Surfacer and Atlantean.  I am sure there is much I could learn from you, and hope you find some value in my techniques, novice as they are."

 

Then he noticed something, a burning smell, and turned to Wilona.  "Oh!  Hold on, I may have something," he said as he rushed to her side, fishing out components from the pouches of his bandolier.  "I do know a bit about medicine -- my mother is a biomystical engineer, and I have picked up some lessons from her -- and I may have something here that can help..."