Seen by the Shore: Demon
A chill wind is a-blowing. Hustling across the ocean and crashing into the city without grace. It feels like winter. Like stabbing needles on the skin and the promise of colder still to come. Dark clouds obscure the sky in every direction, leaving long shadows in the night which is pierced only by the street lamps which are fewer and further between here on the docks. In fact, a few seem to have gone out, and they leave the world feeling colder for their lack of warm glow.
There's not many people out this late, but there's a pair of men talking quietly between a pair of warehouses where the lights have gone out quite coincidentally. They talk in low voices so as to not draw attention to themselves, and do a good job of it. There are other things to pay attention to on this late night. The biting wind. The waves that lap up on the dock. The shinning beacon that is the rest of Alexandria.
His silhouette is different from the usual, but his gait is the same casual, confident stride. Wrapped in a heavy fur-lined leather longcoat, hat perched on his head, Telamon Lupecyll-Atlon is less fazed by the cold but that doesn't mean he finds it comfortable. Still... there's a kind of rightness to it, the cycle of the seasons. His boots are soft on the cobbles, as he paces the Alexandrian docks, dark eyes flicking here and there. The game is afoot, even if he was forced off the track initially.
Pausing beneath one of the dark streetlamps, he slides a hand into his haversack, coming up with a flask which he opens and takes a sip from.
So much for the previous respite from the chill. At least it isn't raining. The cold doesn't stop people from needing to work, especially those who cannot afford otherwise. They are the same who often lack a hot meal at times when it is needed most.
So it is that Kira is walking from the docks bearing a basket in one hand and a large, covered metal pot in the other. The pot is now empty and the basket holds used bowls rather than bread. This is how it should be, as it means full bellies for more.
It's not often that Seldan shows himself openly in the city, these days, but tonight he'd allowed himself the luxury, at least while he was greeting Eluna's face from a perch upon the seawall. Now that that is done and his meditations are complete, he turns back, reluctantly, towards the city. As he strides towards the city proper, he pulls up the hood of his cloak against the night wind, for all it doesn't seem to faze him, and his appearance - shifts.
Where he'd stood a moment before, a dark-haired, leather-clad man has taken the place of the armored ginger, a sword at his hip beneath the cloak, and he continues his stride down the dock towards the others
The two men in the alley by the warehouse stop their discussion, though one of them tries to carry it on a few seconds longer than the other. There's a hushing gesture from the other man, and they both turn wary eyes on Telamon. The second man somewhat belatedly realizes that Seldan is also around, and pulls his hood a little forward. They both seem a little on edge now.
Telamon actually hadn't even noticed the two men initially, lost in his thoughts. When they turn to stare at him, though, he turns to look back, a darker shadow with a distant gleam from where his eyes are. Indeed, he looks faintly ominous, as the flask goes back into his haversack. He then pauses as the leather-armored stranger passes nearby, his starry gaze passing over the man but not recognizing him.
Kira wears a light, casual smile, regardless of the chilly wind, dark alleys, ominous travelers or suspicious conversations in those dark alleys. She does not recognize either of the men outside the alley, though as one pauses at the fading conversation in the alley, she also slows, if just to prevent collision. She also glances down the alleyway, herself. Initially she is merely curious, though recent alley-aligned events are still fresh, along with wise words regarding such.
GAME: Seldan rolls perception: (4)+25: 29
At first, it seems as if the leather-clad man will pass the entire tableau by, paying it no mind. He's most of the way past the alley, although he turns his head briefly towards Kira and Telamon in turn, when suddenly he pauses and looks around him more closely. The presence of the two men in the alley, the pregnant pause, and the tension in the air suddenly seem to dawn on him.
Instead of remaining where he is, though, he shakes his head and turns to resume his walk past the alleyway - except that as soon as he is well out of sight of the two men, he moves over to the wall and puts his back to it -
and is that the quiet clank of armor, far noisier than any leather?
The two men continue to regard Telamon, and with Seldan out of sight the second of the two men seems to relax slightly. They glance at one another, but don't resume their conversation. Though... they don't leave either. The pregnant pause and empty silence continue in an almost uncomfortable manner.
GAME: Seldan rolls stealth: (13)+3: 16
The sorcerer's eyes glitter in the dim light, in a way that a normal person's wouldn't. He looks like he's about to speak, but then stops, instead shaking his head minutely to himself. Catching sight of Kira -- a stranger -- his eyebrows rise, and he approaches the human woman, raising an open hand politely. "A moment of your time, miss," his voice comes out, soft and cultured and congenial. "I'm looking for someone, and I could use your assistance."
Kira's smile begins to part as she seems about to speak to the two men in the alley; likely something polite and/or inquisitive, if her expression and posture are any indication. Her attention and eye instead pivot to Telamon as he addresses her. "Hello," her smile broadens. "I would be happy to help you however I can. Can you describe who you are looking for? I might have seen them."
The leather-clad man remains motionless for the moment, but his eyes are turned towards the alley, and his eyes narrow in focus.
GAME: Telamon rolls perception: (16)+13: 29 GAME: Kira rolls perception: (5)+24: 29 GAME: Seldan rolls perception: (20)+25: 45
The first of the two men relaxes entirely as Telamon takes his questions to Kira and the two strike up a conversation. He keeps his voice low, but it's loud enough for those paying attention to catch. "Are you sure this'll work? They'll respect me?"
The second man nods but seems distracted. "Yes, but keep it down. I heard the armor sounds duck around the corner but not dissipate. I think that other guy is still there."
"Why would he still be there? None of them have any reason to be interested in us. Though the guy with the fancy hat might question us about whoever he's looking for. Maybe you could help him like you're helping me."
"Maybe." The second man seems more suspicious than the first, darting a look at Telamon.
GAME: Telamon rolls bluff: (10)+22: 32
Telamon nods and smiles at Kira, eyes twinkling. "Indeed. He is a blond elf with blue eyes, answering to the name 'Ro'. He was seen in the company of an older, red-headed elf. I have some business with both of them, but it seems I've lost track of them." Sometimes glitters in his dark eyes. "I'm sure they'll turn up in time, but I'd like to handle things on my terms." He seems totally disinterested in the two other men lurking in the alley, turned towards Kira as he is; but his eyes flick to the side almost reflexively.
"He, they, sound very interesting..." Kira acknowledges the descriptions before her lips purse in thought. "I didn't see many elves here just recently, but I could help you look for them. Let me aid you." She does not side-eye the men in the alley as she speaks; she can't, really, as she'd have to turn her entire head to do so.
The last words of offer are a prelude as Kira lifts a hand to her chest and she softly beseeches The Healer for sight. They are to seek, afterall. "Perhaps they could help, also?" she then turns to look to the men in the alley. "Pardon me, but have either of you seen a blond elf with blue eyes in the company of a red-haired elf?"
The leather-clad man against the wall seems to be laser-focused on the entrance to the alley, entirely ignoring the other two by its entrance. His eyes, still shadowed by his hood, narrow, and he begins to move slowly towards the entrance to the alley, behind the others.
The two men turn as Kira speaks up to them. The first looks irritated. He's a big man with a thick beard and tattoos up his arms. He crosses said arms as Kira inquires of them and shakes his head. "Can't say I have, and I'll thank you to leave us out of your business. Whatever it is." He frowns.
The second man is smaller by comparison, looking left and right and then suspiciously at something _behind_ Kira. "I... should go now. Be on my way as it were. You all have a good evening." He nods politely, but distinctly steps backwards so that the larger man is between all of you and himself. He seems intent on leaving.
Telamon tries not to sigh. He takes a deep breath, because he had figured those two were up to something, but as neither were on his 'list' as it were... "Oh for gods' sake," he turns to glare at the two. "What are you two doing? Why in the name of... why would you have a 'sensitive' conversation outside, at the docks?" He throws his hands up in the air, melodramatically, deliberately drawing attention to himself (and hopefully away from the others). "Is this what banditry and rogue-schemes has come to in Alexandria? What happened to the good old days of matching wits with a fiendish mastermind, like... oh, what the hells was the name of that fellow in the detective novels? Doesn't matter." He gives the pair a blistering look.
Kira sets down the metal pot before she starts moving into the alley. The large man is nearer and somewhat interposed, though she tries to keep her on the one moving away, too. "Whatever he offered you," she address the tattooed man, "whatever he wanted in exchange, please, for your own safety, do not accept it. Whatever he is, no good would come of it and he is not welcome here. Please step aside."
"Doubt not that we match wits with a fiendish sort, Master Telamon," the man in leathers at the end of the alley finally speaks up. “It is only his ill luck that I chose to greet her face upon the great seawall this evening."
The sword at his hip, silent to this point, pipes up, in the voice of a querulous old man. "You better believe you weren't paying attention, boy."
"It's not as if you were, Kanian," a younger, deeper, female voice pipes up, again from his hip. "You're always after him."
"He deserves it more often than not." This voice is a middle-aged man with a distinct khazadi sound to his words.
The man behind the tattooed man doesn't wait for you guys to get with the program. Or for the tattooed man to move. He bolts. Takes off down the alleyway so fast that it surprises his companion who shrugs and smiles at Kira mysteriously. "I'll do what's best for me lassie. Looks like he's gone now in any case." He shrugs again and begins to meander toward the ships in the port.
GAME: Telamon casts Haste. Caster Level: 12 DC: 19
Telamon sighs, and pulls his hat off. "It's gonna be one of -those- nights, huh?" he says to nobody in particular. Then he says calmly, "Lukas, sa-i'iz." A flare of silver light limns him, before suddenly jumping to the disguised Seldan as well as to Kira. And then Telamon is running after the man, moving much faster than he should be as his boots strike the cobbles, flashing past the tattooed man.
Kira blinks at the familiar voice, despite that it's been a long while since she's heard it. "He shouldn't get away!" is all she offers in greeting (warning? planning?) before she darts after Telamon, or rather the fleeing man, herself. Alleys and fiends are beginning to trend. Hopefully escaping fiends will not.
GAME: Seldan attempts to cast Wall of Force but fails due to ASF. GAME: Seldan rolls 1d100: (46): 46
The magic hits Seldan, along with a familiar feeling as time appears to slow, and he strides to the entrance to the alleyway. "Begone, lest you be caught in this," he warns the tattooed man, even as the argument at his hip continues.
"Silence, Reunion. We hunt," he snaps, and raises his arm, drawing a series of complex sigils in the air before him. They burst into blue-white fire before him, then seem to collapse on themselves, streaking past the fleeing man and bursting into an invisible - something - that blocks the alleyway, pinning itself to warehouses on either side.
The 'man' rebounds off the wall that Seldan summons and rounds on the group approaching him. He takes in the group and rubs his hands together nervously. Watching the tattooed man make his clean get-away. He sighs. "Come. Surely there's something I can give you to convince you to let me go..." His eyes flicker from Telamon to Kira, and then to Seldan last. "We don't have to fight do we? Think of all the property damage."
Telamon's eyes narrow, and something the others said clicks. "You know," he says in a deceptively conversational tone, "I am -really- getting tired of tripping over your lot." The light of distant stars glows in his gaze. "What makes you think there'll be property damage? I've actually gotten pretty good at not making a lot of mess these days."
Kira slows as the 'man' is stopped and has turned, so that she only walks nearer before stopping. "We do not have to fight," she admits. "You can surrender and be banished, or offer a binding pledge to leave our world and never return. If you offer those, I would allow you to leave."
"I said naught of fighting, yet," Seldan allows, with an incline of the head, although it is less a friendly gesture than an acknowledgement of a foe. His demeanor is focused and steely, but he has made no move towards the sword. "I see little point in dissembling further," he adds, pulling down the hood to reveal for the first time the ginger-blonde and his armor, toned down from its true glory to a well-made but ordinary-looking sort. "There are things I would know."
"I heard the deal you would have struck," he begins. "Tell me, how is it that you have found your way into the city walls. For surely were you not summoned within its bounds."
Taking Telamon and Kira as the tougher sells, the demon in disguise turns on Seldan and... Seldan reveals his true form and the demon seems to pale a bit. Maybe Telamon and the woman were NOT tougher sells. "I've got a spell on me that makes it so that if you kill me - I cause quite a lot of property damage." The demon smiles wickedly and then shakes his finger at Seldan. "No information without a deal of some kind. Why would I tell you my method of egress so that you and the rest of you lot can block it up for the next unwary demon? Besides I know you Seldan of Alexandria, though only by your bearing. You've got a certain reputation."
GAME: Telamon rolls sense motive+3: (3)+20+3: 26
Telamon stares icily at the demon. "How unsurprising. Still..." He flexes his fingers. "There are ways to handle such as you, that don't involve immediate death. I don't take any pleasure in them, but I'll happily go to the trouble to keep you from hurting others." He takes a deep breath, apparently getting control of himself. "Why -should- we deal with you?" he remarks, inspecting his nails apparently. "I mean, the payoffs for dealing with fiends never play out."
Kira remains wary, but is not one to move to violence first, as Seldan is aware. "You want to bargain, but do you have anything worthwhile to offer? We have no reason to trust anything you would say to be truthful." She nods to and with Telamon. "Why should we make any deal with you?"
"A good question, especially for someone aware of my reputation. Once have I made the mistake of striking a deal with a fiend, and once shall that error remain for all time." Seldan's tone remains coolly even, and he raises his arms again, pointedly turning his back on the demon and beginning the same spell again, this time to wall off the area behind him. This one is a little taller, double the height of a man and more, and mere inches from his fingertips.
GAME: Seldan casts Wall of Force. Caster Level: 16 DC: 23
The demon sheds its human appearance as Seldan traps himself inside a cage with it. It now has four arms and a terrible visage. "Admittedly it's not in my nature to deal fairly with mortals. However I know when I'm outmatched. And I have an ability that most demons do not. I am a Wish demon. A demon capable of making a pact and seeing it through. There's no need for all this posturing. Make a deal with me." He spreads his arms. "I show you my true face so that you will know me for what I am, and that I am being truthful with you."
Telamon actually takes a step back at the big reveal, eyes widening. Then he realizes what Seldan's done, and he stiffens. "Sir Seldan... are you sure you know what you're doing?" His hands are raised, but it's clear Tel isn't quite sure what to -do- at this juncture, whatever magical capabilities he has seem wholly inadequate to this task.
Kira is concerned by Seldan's actions, even if she does understand them. At least she believes she does, in regards to the sudden second magical wall. When the fiend sheds its facade, she is ... not pleased, but not excessively surprised. "Be careful, Seldan. We are still here as you need."
"Doubtless Sunguard Zeke will scold me." Seldan doesn't sound too concerned, offering the both of them a small smile. "Twice the height of a man, should there be need." _What does he mean by that?_
With that, he turns back to the demon, and Reunion rasps from his sheath. "I am uninterested in deals with demons of any sort."
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+10: (16)+10: 26
The demon blinks unkindly at Seldan and presses its back to the invisible wall. Then as he draws his sword it... LEAPS. Bounding to the top of Seldan's wall and crouching there. "Foolish mortal." It then turns its red-eyed gaze on Telamon.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+4: (14)+4: 18 GAME: Seldan rolls reunion+se+pa+1: aliased to weapon1+charisma-4+1: (1)+24+8+-4+1: 30 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20: (20): 20
"Foolish indeed, but no more so than one standing upon a spell that is dismissed with a thought." Seldan makes a swift, cutting gesture that dismisses the spell at once, then rushes in with a cry of "Dreamer send you back whence you belong!" sadly, the swish is high overhead, for when one falls, it is generally on one's rear, leaving one shorter than one ought to be.
The demon manages to not only evade Seldan's blade, but also manages to get to it's feet, snarling at the man and grinning. "Without your barriers if you kill me you'll probably kill him too. Have you thought of that Seldan?"
GAME: Telamon casts Overland Flight. Caster Level: 12 DC: 21
"The hells weren't kind to your brains, were they?" Telamon says casually. "Baras kalag, dana i-iz." The chant hangs in the air, as shimmering motes of light coalesce on his back into a ring and six wing-like vanes that swing out and open. Suddenly the young sorcerer is in the air, out of the demon's reach.
GAME: Kira rolls weapon0+charisma: (15)+19+6: 40 GAME: Kira rolls weapon0+charisma: (11)+19+6: 36 GAME: Kira rolls weapon0+charisma: (1)+19+6: 26 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Kira rolls weapon0+charisma-5: (9)+19+6+-5: 29 GAME: Kira rolls weapon0+charisma-10: (8)+19+6+-10: 23 GAME: Kira rolls weapon0+charisma-15: (20)+19+6+-15: 30 (THREAT) GAME: Kira rolls weapon0+charisma-15: (4)+19+6+-15: 14 GAME: Kira rolls damage0+paladin+paladin: aliased to 1d8+3+paladin+paladin: (3)+3+10+10: 26 GAME: Kira rolls damage0+paladin: aliased to 1d8+3+paladin: (5)+3+10: 18 GAME: Kira rolls damage0+paladin: aliased to 1d8+3+paladin: (6)+3+10: 19 GAME: Kira rolls damage0+paladin: aliased to 1d8+3+paladin: (2)+3+10: 15 GAME: Seldan rolls reunion+haste+pa+se: aliased to weapon1+1-4+charisma: (18)+24+1+-4+8: 47 GAME: Seldan rolls reunion+haste+pa+se-5: aliased to weapon1+1-4+charisma-5: (13)+24+1+-4+8+-5: 37 GAME: Seldan rolls reunion+haste+pa+se-10: aliased to weapon1+1-4+charisma-10: (10)+24+1+-4+8+-10: 29 GAME: Seldan rolls reunion+haste+pa+se: aliased to weapon1+1-4+charisma: (20)+24+1+-4+8: 49 (THREAT) GAME: Seldan rolls reunion+haste+pa+se: aliased to weapon1+1-4+charisma: (4)+24+1+-4+8: 33
Kira blinks as the demon leaps atop the wall. That was not expected. Nor was the sudden removal of the wall. Or even Seldan's strike (well, the strike was not unexpected, though the effect was somewhat). As the fiend threatens them all directly now, she takes action, stepping up to strike at it, limbs limned in The Healer's Grace. "We need not kill you to stop you!" Her strikes match her words, as they are precise and measured.
GAME: Seldan rolls reuniondmg+sedmg+sedmg+padmg: aliased to 1d8+9+8+8+8: (7)+9+8+8+8: 40 GAME: Seldan rolls reuniondmg+sedmg+padmg: aliased to 1d8+9+8+8: (4)+9+8+8: 29 GAME: Seldan rolls reuniondmg+sedmg+padmg: aliased to 1d8+9+8+8: (5)+9+8+8: 30
"I had not, but I gave him time enough to move." Seldan's smile remains small, his focus laser, sharp, but he repositions and comes back with a flurry of strikes that lay waste to demonage with a holy fury that is heedless od destruction.
The demon, laid out by Seldan's weapon, explodes in a fiery conflagration. The damage is somewhat mitigated by the walls of force remaining and the brick and stone of the warehouses. Thus the most damage is done to flesh and bone. Thankfully, Kira and Seldan are more than capable, and when the smoke clears both remain standing.
-End