Play the Cards (Part 2)
A light rain falls from the sky, a cool wind blowing it across the festival grounds. It's a dreary day, fitting perhaps for the boy standing armed and armored like a man many times his size. He stands with a longsword strapped to his hip, and moves like he's familiar with it's use. This is perhaps not surprising given his father's association as a paladin of the temple of Daeus. Behind him is the now-familiar form of a stern woman watching him with worried eyes.
She had in fact been whispering furiously into his ear, but he had pulled away quite quickly, dismissing further conversation with a wave of his hand. Only one other person stands at hand beside the woman. Their butler.
Dolan _hates_ rain, for a variety of reasons. He is here anyway, for there is work to be done. Clad in nearly the same outfit that he had worn to the manor, exchanging the Corona's mantle for a sleeveless sheepskin jacket and twin cloaks, the mighty greatsword for a simple longsword. To Andelena, before meeting here, he'd refused the bigger weapon with a simple, "Nah. Today I'm doing the Knight's work, so I'll use His tools."
He stands now, waiting, occasionally shifting and rubbing at the cuff that tightly covers his left shoulder, but otherwise seems calm. The only other thing he has said to the two with him is in a quiet murmur. "If this works, get all three of them out of the way."
Andelena's here. She looks as stone-faced as can be, eyeing the child and the worried woman with scrutiny in those steel-gray eyes of hers. She squints after a moment, a glance offered to the butler that then becomes a much harder study, and she leans into Dolan's ear as he speaks to her. "Got it, babe," she says. Then, more quietly, she offers: "Give that _thing_ no quarter."
"You've be being having my word." Lysa says softly to Dolan. "I will be being preserving the lives of the hosts if you manage to be being scaring evil spirits from them."
That said, she is in her plate armor, both weapons on her back. But she is not wielding either of them. She has them at the ready, sure.. but that's it. She is ready to fight, to heal, to shield.. whatever becomes required here.
The boy strides forward firmly to meet Dolan halfway. His face is set and firm. There's a sense about him that the illusion from before is still in place, but having seen through it; your mind knows it exists. "What is your weapon of choice?" The boy demands, his eyes firm and his helmet held under his arm in readiness for the fight to come.
Dolan turns around and winks at Andelena with his lone flesh-and-blood eye, then lets out a breath and comes forward to meet the boy. "What else? His weapon's enough." His stare back at the boy is sober, and he watches every move, then bows his head, reaching for the stylized dragon around his neck. "Holy Sunlord, guide my hand. Let me shield the innocent and punish the guilty, and uncover Your truth in this matter."
When it is done, he looks up, his stare again level. "At your ready."
"Get 'em, baby," Andelena returns with a wink back at Dolan and a small grin. She walks a small distance away, giving the two duelists plenty of space on the field to do their work. In the middle of that, her hand goes to her own amulet of Daeus and she murmurs her own prayer.
"O Knight, grant Brydion your protection and your strength." For it is him in the duel and it is him that needs it most of the three now.
Arms folding over her abdomen, Lysa merely gives a blank face. She has schooled her face to not give anything away right here. Aside from the glare in her blue eyes which are glaring at the mother right now. Not at the combatants.
The boy steps back half a step, laying on hand on his sword hilt. "Lord grant me your strength, and by your virtue; victory." No one else offers prayers of any type and the boy's eyes narrow on Dolan. "Very well! We begin!" He says suddenly, and draws the weapon quickly.
GAME: Dolan casts Cast Out. Caster Level: 8 DC: 16 GAME: Dolan rolls melee: (7)+11: 18 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+7: (14)+7: 21 GAME: Dolan rolls 2d8+8: (6)+8: 14 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d20+8: (3)+8: 11 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d20+8: (8)+8: 16
Instead of going for the weapon first, though, Dolan reaches for the stylized dragon at his throat again. "Holy Sunlord. I duel not with Your servant, and not with a child, but with the fiend that has taken this child. In the name of the Sunlord, SHOW YOURSELF!" His free hand lunges out, before the boy can move, and brushes the top of his helmeted head.
Yep. Duel. Dolan does his thing. Lysa is trying to look relaxed when she is tensed and ready to leap into action. Literally preparing to leap and tackle the kid if Dolan is able to remove some evil spirit from him. Other than that, she is just... standing there appearing and trying to 'be' patient.
"Cast it OUT, Bry!" Andelena hollers at the top of her lungs, standing by the sidelines in a stance that's familiar to her. How many times did she watch Dolan go up to spar with their master--and then him watching her spar in turn--like this? It's familiar, in the warm way of nostalgia, in the warm way of the young days of their love.
Andelena turns to the pendant again, holding it in her hands. She remembers what it was like to call on Him, the Knight, for the first time, and to be answered. Especially with a child's safety on the line--a child that has been so unfairly taken by something wicked and evil--she cannot falter here. "Daeus, Shining Knight, give Brydion Donnelly the aid he needs to cast the fiend out of that boy so that we may Judge it," she prays. Because it is him, her, and the Knight. It always has been, and it always will be. The boy grunts as Dolan's hand lands on his head and he swings wildly at Dolan's side. The weapon catches Dolan's armor and nothing more, but the blow is surprisingly solid. "Will you not defend yourself rather than living in your own fantasy?" He roars angrily. The woman takes a half-step forward, but immediately draws herself back.
GAME: Dolan casts Cast Out. Caster Level: 8 DC: 16 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+7: (19)+7: 26 GAME: Dolan rolls melee: (1)+11: 12 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Dolan rolls melee: (17)+11: 28 GAME: Dolan rolls 2d8+8: (6)+8: 14 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d20+8: (15)+8: 23
Dolan grunts at the blow, that'll bruise tomorrow, but if that is all it does, so be it. Instead, he merely barks a laugh. "Fantasy? Kid, you must think I'm an _idiot_." Oh, now the gloves are off.
And he _still_ hasn't drawn the sword.
"No kid your age has mastered even the most basic of magic, nor are they trusted with it, and for damn good reason. I saw through that little illusion of yours the minute I walked through the door," he snarls. "Then you tell me you know where a fiend went when it's banished from this plane, and you did it under truth compulsion. I've seen your kind before. One of V's minions, I'll bet."
With that, he lunges forward again, with a different move, but this time moves to slap the boy across the face, the other hand on his dragon pendant as a sudden surge of grace, from nowhere, courses through him. "Now SHOW YOURSELF, you little shit, and let the boy go!"
This time, something happens. Black, oily smoke begins to pour from the boy's mouth, and this time, the snarl turns to mixed focus and satisfaction. "Got you," he mutters. "GET THE KID AWAY!" he shouts. "I'LL HANDLE THE FIEND!"
GAME: Lysa rolls cmb: (10)+12: 22
Coiled like a spring, Lysa leaps towards the kid. Somehow, she misjudges the young lordling's ability to move. She zigs, he zags, and she ends up tackling a face full of floor. That done, she scrambles up and draws her sword.
GAME: Andelena rolls CMB: (4)+10: 14 GAME: Andelena rolls CMB: (2)+10: 12
Andelena follows her gut instinct, which is to always act in the interest of the child. But like the Sunblade, she is unable to get a grip on him--perhaps the result of the fiend influencing him and fighting to stay in.
"Get OUT of him!" she growls. "Leave the child ALONE."
The smoke stops pouring out of the boy, but it _is_ suddenly pouring out of the woman behind the boy, and also her butler. The three look vaguely queasy and uncertain in the aftermath. The boy stepping back from Lysa and Andelena with his hands upraised. "I... I what's going on here?"
He doesn't in fact seem to realize where he is or what he's doing, and worse, the smoke seems quite gone.
GAME: Dolan rolls weapon4+2: (17)+13+2: 32 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d100: (62): 62 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d8+4+2+2d6: (6)+4+2+(8): 20
"Boy, run! I just drove a fiend out of you! It's still around, get out of the way! Sunblade, they're still here!" It takes Dolan only a moment to make that determination, with a narrowing of the eyes. "All of you, RUN! I'll explain later! In the meantime, may the Sunlord's holy light be your bane! Stand in judgment for harassing a child, motherfucker!" Dolan's hot now.
As he speaks, the sword lashes from its scabbard now, flashing with sunlight down the blade, and as he brings it across, an unearthly scream of fury erupts from the blank space he'd slashed through.
Sword already in hand, Lysa lifts it skyward, "Sunlord, be being blessing my blade. I am being needing your power added to my own!" And from within... the small golden glow suffuses her eyes before shooting down her body and then her arm.. before embedding itself into the blade of her sword. Her now -holy- sword.
And once that is done, she spreads her arms out and backs towards the family. "Be being moving away from this fight if you are being pleasing milord." she suggests. "And the rest of you as well." she adds. She is trying to be a human shield for what it is worth.
To Dolan she raises her voice, "I shall be being withdrawing after the family has been being doing so!"
GAME: Andelena casts Magic Circle Against Evil. Caster Level: 6 DC: 17 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (19)+11: 30 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (4)+11: 15 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (18)+11: 29 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (13)+11: 24 GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d6: (3): 3 GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d6: (6): 6 GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d6: (7): 7
"I've got them covered!" Andelena shouts as she moves forward, running up to bring the child, the butler, and the woman into the radius she needs for this spell to keep them safe from the influence of the fiend.
"Daeus, Holy Knight, shelter us from evil and deliver us from your enemies!" the Sunguard solemnly prays. And there's a burst of light that emanates from her, a protective circle that gently wraps around the family and herself.
The area around Dolan begins to darken and darken. Obscuring the man in pitch blackness even as the child and the rest of the innocent begin to clear the area at his insistence. Dolan's vision is obscured by the lengthening darkness, and claws come forth to tear at his vulnerable areas. Coldness sets into his bones at every strike.
GAME: Dolan rolls weapon4+2: (20)+13+2: 35 (THREAT) GAME: Dolan rolls weapon4+2: (19)+13+2: 34 (THREAT) GAME: Dolan rolls weapon4+2-5: (16)+13+2+-5: 26 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d100: (99): 99 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d100: (93): 93 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d8+5+1d8+5+2+2+2d6: (8)+5+(7)+5+2+2+(6): 35 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d8+5+2+2d6: (2)+5+2+(7): 16
"Little help here, Sunblade?!" comes Dolan's voice out of the inky blackness, followed shortly by a scream of pain as unearthly claws leave a gash in him. "Sunlord be my shield and sword, and through my blade judge your wickedness!" he shouts then. The only sound that follows is another scream of unearthly fury, this time very, very pained. "I’m one on three! Make that two!"
GAME: Lysa rolls weapon12: (15)+13: 28 GAME: Lysa rolls 1d100: (17): 17 GAME: Andelena casts Daylight. Caster Level: 6 DC: 17
Coming out swinging for the fences for sure. Lysa surges forward when called for. Her glowing sword swishes through emptiness but failure is just a chance to succeed later. She withdraws her blade to a guard position and aways damage....
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (8)+11: 19 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (10)+11: 21
It's time to cast out the dark. The Sunguard Andelena knows this is her very purpose, her very calling. The pendant comes off her neck and she lifts it high into the air, compelling all to bear witness to the Knight's image.
"Sunlord, bring your light so that I might bear it as my own!" Andelena decrees, and Daeus answers, illuminating the darkness and revealing what is there in the shadows: evil. Evil that will be quickly rooted out. For she stands tall and she stands proudly in defiance of the Knight's enemies.
The darkness only returns a moment later however, dancing across the space around Dolan, and once again obscuring him and Lysa from view. More claws scrape and scream against his armor, but this time do not so easily find a way inside.
GAME: Dolan rolls weapon4+2-3: (13)+13+2+-3: 25 GAME: Dolan rolls weapon4+2-3-5: (13)+13+2+-3+-5: 20 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d100: (55): 55 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d100: (14): 14 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d100: (28): 28 GAME: Dolan rolls 1d8+5+2+2d6+6: (3)+5+2+(6)+6: 22 GAME: Lysa rolls weapon12: (9)+13: 22 GAME: Lysa rolls weapon12-7: (19)+13+-7: 25 (THREAT) GAME: Lysa rolls weapon12-7: (11)+13+-7: 17 GAME: Lysa rolls 1d100: (71): 71 GAME: Lysa rolls 1d100: (99): 99
The cold is seeping in, and the ache of wielding any weapon two-handed combines with the rain to send a stab through him that tells him he'll _hurt_ late for this, but the sound of the paladin closing ranks with him gives Dolan new energy. The first slash draws the angry scream he was looking for, but the second finds only empty darkness, and he mutters a curse. "Hold still."
GAME: Lysa rolls 1d10+7+8+2d6: (8)+7+8+(7): 30 GAME: Lysa rolls 1d10+7+8+2d6: (8)+7+8+(7): 30
After whiffing that one time, Lysa rolls her neck, "Sunlord be being guiding my blade. Be being piercing the heart of the shadows..." she says as she steps closer now, more deliberately... and one, two swipes... and she can -feel- the bite of the blade, hear the hiss of the holy power burning into the fiend. After the second one... there's the feel of a limp body fading away. "I am being thinking that is being one down." she admits with a tenor of hope in her voice. "Be being holding on Dolan. I am happy to be being healing you."
GAME: Andelena casts Bless. Caster Level: 6 DC: 15
The light that came from her pendant didn't last long, but that will not stop the Sunguard. She is busy protecting those who have no means to protect themselves: the woman, the butler, the child. She cannot join the melee. But she can give Lysa and Dolan the aid they need from afar.
"Daeus, Shining Knight, grant Lysa and Brydion your favor so that their blades are keen and their strikes are true," she prays, the light settling onto herself, her man, and their fellow Daeusite.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (19)+11: 30 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (20)+11: 31 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (10)+11: 21 GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d6: (2): 2 GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d6: (7): 7
There's a pregnant pause. A waiting for the other demon to strike. But it doesn't come. At least not from where it's expected. Pain lashes across Andelena's arm, threatening to force her to drop the medallion in her hand.
Sensing that something has gone amiss, that something is missing, when no strike comes, Dolan instead raises his sword to his face, and just - _concentrates_. Concentrates on banishing the darkness around him. His head almost rests against the flat of the blade when a sunburst of golden-white light pours from him, blowing away the globe of darkness and remanding the world to its regularly scheduled cloudy day.
GAME: Lysa rolls perception: (19)+10: 29 GAME: Lysa rolls weapon12+1: (19)+13+1: 33 (THREAT) GAME: Lysa rolls weapon12+1: (8)+13+1: 22 GAME: Lysa rolls 1d100: (51): 51 GAME: Lysa rolls 3d10+30+2d6: (22)+30+(7): 59
In a moment that suddenly narrows Lysa's vision down to almost slow motion.. she has a moment to see everything. Andelena's wound... the light returning to the room... Lysa turns and begins a charge that is made possibly only by her Fasty Jumpy Boots. She takes three steps and leaps into the air... bringing her sword down in a massive swing that she halts -just- before she strikes the ground... But she feels it bite. Feels it burn.. and she exhales with exertion as she does so... She gave that one everything she had, but she didn't feel it go limp. "I am being thinking that did not kill it." she says as she tries to catch her breath.
GAME: Andelena rolls weapon12+1+1: (13)+12+1+1: 27 GAME: Andelena rolls 1d100: (68): 68 GAME: Andelena rolls damage12+2+2+1+1d6: aliased to 1d8+5+2+2+1+1d6: (4)+5+2+2+1+(2): 16
It bloodied her. It got _way_ too close too comfort. Andelena's face contorts in rage and she draws her blade. "Livvie! With me!"
"I am with you!" a maternal voice comes from the sword.
"Holy Knight, may I be the servant that delivers your judgment!" both Sunguard and sword say in perfect concert, and the blade itself shimmers with silver flame, a glorious display of Daeus's blessing. They act together, a demon-killing blade in the hand of a woman whose face is forever scarred by one. The Sunguard brings the blade down into the air where she _knows_ the fiend to be hiding--
And it's gone. The evil sent home, just as she did back in the Temple. But far less bloodied than before.
Unsurprisingly, the three 'civilians' are staring at the group of you in a range of shocked expressions. Finally their faces clear and the woman steps forward and offers a gentle curtsy. "You have my undying thanks for freeing myself, my man, and my son from these foul beasts!" She looks at you solidly and her son stands at her side. "I have no idea how these fiends could have infiltrated into the very heart of our house, but you can be assured that the temple of Daeus will have our renewed support in the future."
She eyes her young son and smiles softly, "I think in fact, that we might send young Sadul here to train at the temple; to learn its ways as his father once did." The boy seems uncertain, but after a moment nods.
GAME: Lysa rolls perception: (3)+10: 13 GAME: Dolan rolls perception: (1)+16: 17 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Andelena rolls Perception: (12)+11: 23 GAME: Dolan rolls perception: (8)+16: 24
"Andie!" Dolan's shout just as the Sunguard strikes the last demon down is filled with sudden anguish and worry, and he takes off at a dead run towards her, stopping only when she lowers the blade and seems satisfied. The glow centered on him fades into quiescence, then winks out entirely. He's bloodied worse than she is, crimson visible beneath the armor, and he shivers with cold, but the gaze is resolute.
"Ah, it's okay, m’lady. These f-" He stops short. "These things have been around for a bit, and Andie and I have been trying to track 'em down. Sorry they got to you. You all okay?" He looks them over, scratch at his hairline sheepishly.
GAME: Lysa rolls fortitude: (14)+14: 28 GAME: Dolan rolls fortitude: (15)+13: 28
As things wind down, Lysa lifts her blade, looking outward and scanning for evil auras once more. Though that was hidden from previously.. it is all that she has. After all, one should never be ... complacent. But after one last scan, she tenses, frozen in place for several long heartbeats. Her eyes narrow as she turns her head a bit to her left, staring off in that direction, away from the folks here. It's not -fear-, because.. Paladin, but there is circumspect respect and concern on her face for a fleeting moment.
She turns her head, looking to Dolan and then Andelena... giving a -look-. Hoping to communicate... 'WE NEED TO TALK'... Then she lifts her weapon... dissipating her added blessing even as she checks to make sure it is clean before she sheathes it.
Lastly, she turns towards the young Lordling and approaches him slowly before going down to one knee. "If being training for the Sunblades is what you are being wanting truly my lord, then I, Lysa Hrolfdottr, Sunblade of Daeus will be being sponsoring you in this. If you will be being accepting of such."
She smiles a bit and adds, "And if you are being seeking other training. Perhaps the Sunguards, I am being wagering that there may be being someone here who may be being offering the same."
Andelena pants a little as Dolan approaches, but she offers him a small grin when he catches up to her. "Hey babe," she says gently. "I'm okay. Just a little scratch."
She'd offer more, but her steel-grey eyes are trained on something elsewhere in the fairgrounds. "Bry--did you see that man?" she asks quietly to him, lowering her voice so that the family doesn't hear. She'd address Lysa's comment about Sunguards who could sponsor training--because she'd love to--but the redhead's got her eyes on a prize, and _not_ from the kind of regular festivities the festival grounds usually have to offer.
A flash of _something_ crosses Dolan's features as he looks after the man leaving. It is almost a twist of expression, and for a moment, Dolan looks as if he is going to be ill where he stands, but he shakes his head and quickly drops the effect. "Yeah, I saw him. Let's escort them back to the manor. We probably ought to search the manor for more of those," and apologetically, his head swings to the lady of the house. "If that's okay with you," he adds quickly.
Lysa gets only a brief nod, but Andelena gets more. "If you're sure, baby." Back to the woman and her son. "Anyone else hurt?"
"No, thank you. That would be much appreciated." The woman says, and motions for you to follow her back to the house. Everything else it seems... Will have to wait.
-End