Iron Kingdoms: Tides of War

[rhoenix]

After giving Akina and Malkamar the basic time agreed-upon, Zedrin took aim at the front door of the decrepit building at the angle Corey had suggested. After a moment, sparks began to accumulate along the barrel of his rifle, right before an electrical bolt rent the air between the muzzle of his rifle, and the front door.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Right after sparks began to gather, and right before the lighting bolt emerged from the muzzle of the rifle, Corey started chanting. He threw out the fingers of his right hand releasing the sulfur, which disappeared in a puff of smoke, and closed the fist, bringing his left hand close to his chest then threw a punch with his right hand and released the fist in an exploding motion, releasing a pea sized glowing ball which would follow the lighting bolt and go inside the door as it was destroyed and detonate inside the room.

[Cynical Cat]

Lightning shattered the front door, boards in all, in blast that momentarily illuminated the entire block. For a fraction of a second the interior of the building was illuminated, including a half naked rune covered thrall at the back of the shop writhing and twisting as the lightning coursed through his body.

The aftermath of the flash left the observers half blind for a few seconds. Hot orange flames blasted back out of the ruined doorway like a dragon's belch as Corey filled half the building with fire.

[Charon]

Akina had made hwe way through the tunnel as quietly as she could, though there wasn't much for it in all the armor she'd been wearing. The only saving grace was the distraction that the mechanik's had built going off followed shortly by the lightning and flame.

Akina made her way to her exit point far more quickly now, climbing the ladder as fast as she could Akina shoved with all her might on the grating to throw it aside. Once she was up on solid ground she drew both her pistols from their holsters at her sides, she took only a moment to line them up on the nearest Thralls head before she fired.

[rhoenix]

Despite being blinded from the flash and coughing somewhat from the smoke now rolling out of what was left of the building's doorway, Zedrin held the barrel of his rifle as he concentrated on another spell. This one was more subtle in immediate effect, but would show itself once a bullet in the rifle was fired, nearly guaranteeing that it would not miss.

The casting took only a short time, and he raised the rifle afterward, waiting for his vision and the smoke to clear somewhat before he began to seek his target.

[Hotfoot]

The thumper had gotten off one good hit, and Rogan hesitated a moment to watch it wind up for the second shot, a satisfied grin on his face. He moved quickly and quietly back to the door the others were ready to bash in, his wrench sliding into his hand. He tapped the pouches on his belt to mentally remind himself which concoctions were where. The explosions hit his ears as he rounded the corner. He raised an arm to protect his face from any debris that came his way.

A quick glance at the situation told him all he needed to know. He needed to get in the thick of it. Hopefully the Trollkin would get stuck in earlier, but he wouldn't do much good in the back, and he needed to get close so he could aggressively reconstruct the lich. Once his eyes had readjusted to the light, he ran into the building, keeping close to the walls to let the others have cleaner shots into the structure. He took what targets of opportunity he could, making sure to kick away any weapons from bodies that were knocked over from the force of the blast. These things would be bad enough to fight as it was, but with weapons? Well, why give them an advantage if you didn't have to?

[Cynical Cat]

Smoke cleared, but the room got no brighter. Fire crawled up several blackened beams and two of the chemical lamps had exploded from the heat, leaving two puddles of glowing chemicals on the floor. Two bane thralls wearing scorched full plate armour stood near the door, their undead flesh ravaged by the intense heat of the magical flames. Darkness shrouded their bodies and drain a fraction of the strength from those around them, weakening their foes as well as making them difficult targets. The aura of night seemed to eat the light from the lamps and the sun. They advanced through the ruins of the door, greatswords held high and murder burning in their eye sockets.

Akina thrust open the heavy iron grate. It landed on the floor with a clang. The two rune covered skarlock thralls, one of which was seriously damaged, turned at the noise. One uttered something in a strange tongue and the warrior pulled herself into the room.

Their were two other bane thralls in the ruined shop. They had been far enough back that they had not been harmed by the fiery blast. As Akina got to her feet and drew her pistols, they closed on her, one from the front and the other from behind. They were not slow and clumsy things, but swift, skilled, and deadly.

The iron lich hissed/rasped something, dropping its tools and grabbing its staff. Its soul cages were not to be seen, safely nestling inside the steel box it had crafted for them. The same trick would not avail them.

[Bloody Good]

Ardal didn't like the look of those armored thralls. They looked mean. Breathing deep and not minding the smoke, he bellowed at them and let the power surging through his blood turn the yell into a sustained thunderclap. One throbbing vein stood out on his forehead, and his pale blue skin tone edged towards purple. The trollkin equivalent of shouting until he was red in the face, apparently. Had any of the nearby windows remained intact after the fireball, they would have been shattered now, not by the pitch of the shout, but by the sheer amount of force behind it.

[Cynical Cat]

If the bane thralls had been living things they would have been sprawled unconscious on the floor with blood trickling from their ears. Fortunately for them, they were not. The impact of the fellcaller's blast of noise was sufficient to cause several bricks to crack and abort the bane thralls' charge by knocking them off their feet.

[LadyTevar]

Teghe figured it'd be a good idea to let the Trollkin go first. Looks like he was right. The TrueStrike spell had been cast before they blew the doors, and now the gunmage fed his magic into one of the three runic bullets he had left, making it more deadly. Have to make more soon came the idle thought as the Thurian leveled his pistol and fired at one of the more damaged Thrulls, in hopes of putting it down for good.

[Charon]

Akina moved in on the Thrall infront of her, hoping to gain herself some time and space from being attacked from behind while she brought her guns up and emptied them of their heavy shots towards the face of the Thrall she was approaching. Then she came to a sudden stop and sidestepped, turning as she did so to continue facing the one thrall and have a better look at the other, and dropping her pistols to the ground she reached behind her and grabbed her Umbrian Waraxe, unslinging it and bringing it around in her grip, ready to defend against incoming attacks. Confident her armor could withstand punishment it would recieve while she did so.

[Cynical Cat]

Teghe's shot struck the one of the bane thralls dead center in its breastplate. Their was a blue-white flash as the empowered bullet blasted through armour and undead flesh. Smoke rose from the wound and it lay still. The darkness around it faded.

Akina wasn't so successful. One of her bullets missed completely, the other glanced off armour. As she drew her war axe, they were on top of her. One went high while the other slashed low. The low swinging blade smashed her left greave. Pain shot through her entire leg, resonating in her thigh bone as the leg collapsed. The Umbrean fell to the sooty floor. One of the undead turned to deal with the other intruders. The other raised its sword to strike the downed woman again.

The skarlock thralls darted forward, overturning tables for cover. One raised its hand and a blast of cyan light struck Ardal in the right shoulder, burning through leather, mail, and flesh. Behind them their master ponderously moved to get a better view of the door.

[SirNitram]

A thunderous crack of gunfire interrupted the undead about to strike Akina. Malkamar had delayed his entrance, fearful of secondary fires and his copious amount of powder, but the rifle was in his hands and firing to cover his fellow warrior.

[rhoenix]

Aiming at the other bane thrall, Zedrin aimed his rifle, and channeled the essence of a spell into it. The spell was one of his weakest ones, but it would serve to give the bullet extra punch as it rapidly closed the distance between his barrel, and the bale thrall it was aimed at.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Corey raised his hand, and tapped into his stored Lightning bolt spell to unleash yet another smaller lightnign bolt at the remaining living thrall outside. Electricity shot from his hand.

[Cynical Cat]

The bane thrall standing of Akina shuddered as the bullet struck it in the torso. It turned its head to glare at Malkamar and then turned back toward the downed Umbrean, apparently not seriously discommodated by being shot.

The wounded bane thrall regained his feet just in time to get shot by the gunmage and fried by the wizard. Smoke poured from its body and it fell. "Stand aside," the iron lich rasped in Caspian. The unwounded bane thrall obeyed as its master pointed his staff at the doorway. A stream of acid erupted from the iron lich's staff.

[rhoenix]

Seeing the iron lich stomping within sight of the doorway, rasping something in Caspian, and begin to raise its staff, Zedrin immediately dove to the side. He somersaulted as he handed, ending up in a crouch away from the now-ruined doorway. He grumbled quietly as he loaded another bullet. The fact that the iron lich now had its soul cages enclosed in strong iron boxes hadn't escaped his attention.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Corey had stood back from the doorway, and was protected from acid when the Iron Lich used its acid staff. Still, he made sure he was out of range of the blasted effect by leaping back further and moving to get a better line of sight of the Bane Thrall standing over Akina

He raised his hand and spoke several simple words, before bright blue pulses of light erupted from his hand and struck the abomination unerringly.

[LadyTevar]

The spell of True Striking spent, Teghe was forced to rely on his own skills at aiming. Of course, first he had to try to dodge the stream of acid heading his way. Zed went to one side, Teghe tried to go to the other, and prayed he'd get out of the way in time -- Having to by a new coat would suck.

As he rolled to his feet, he was already spell-charging a new runic bullet to load.

[Charon]

Akina snorted in rage as she fell, readying her axe to parry the incoming attack when Malkamar's shot distracted the Thrall, she needed little more excuse. She sat up quickly, using her elbows to right her torso, giving her the extra leverage she needed as she swung her serrec steel axehead around, aiming to shorten the Thrall at the knees just as it was beginning to look back her way.

[Cynical Cat]

A tightly packed mass clustered around a doorway, casting spells and pointing guns does not dodge well. In fact, it tends to trip itself up when it does so. Corey's attempt to leap away and maintain line of sight for spellcasting ended up tangling him up with the gun mages and sending them all down in a heap, aborting their spellcasting and attacks.

Acid sprayed over the adventurers, but some were fortunate. Teghe and Zedrin were mostly shielded by Corey's squirming body and he was protected from acid. The blast ate away most of spell shield, but saved his flesh and garments. The gunmages were splattered and the acid corroded their armoured coats, but only inflicted a few small but agonizing wounds on their flesh.

Rogan was mostly shielded by the mass of gun mages and the bellowing trollkin and only a few drops struck his coat. Ardal was too close to the front of the mass to escape unharmed, but didn't take the full brunt. Leather and mail bubbled away as acid burned through the tough hide on his left side, but the trollkin would live and could still fight, albeit not at top form.

Inside the workshop, Akina swung. The war axe bit through metal and tough undead flesh, ringing against bone. The bane thrall fell to its knees, its finishing stroke aborted by the Umbrean's blade.

[LadyTevar]

"Dammit, Corey!" Teghe swore, hissing at the pain as what acid the mage's spell didn't catch seared spots along the gunmage's off arm. Concentration lost for the moment, Teghe focused more on getting back on his feet and spreading out so the Lich wouldn't have a handle bundled target. "Split up, don't let 'em try that shit again."

[Bloody Good]

Spewing curses of ear-blistering vehemence, Ardal dropped his axe. Khador weapons were hard enough to swing quickly with both hands, and now he was chewed up again. He rushed in, freeing his scattergun. A sprinting hip-check delivered to one of the tables behind which a scarlock thrall hid should be enough to knock the Frankenstein-wannabe off balence. If not, a very large trollkin blundering over the top onto it should. Ardal led his coordinated topple with his bayonet, trying to press his attack on the beastie and lodge that saw-edged blade in its chest before pulling the trigger.

[Charon]

Akina got to her feet, using her axe as a brace to steady herself as she got up. She quickly lifted her axe and turned it, driving the spearpoint of her axe towards the head of the kneeling thrall. With success she'd take a quick look around to assess the situation.

[Cynical Cat]

Ardal's charge knocked over the table and drove the skarlock back, but he failed to stab it with his bayonet. Akina's short thrust bounced off the bane thrall's helmet as it rose to its feet. It reached out and seized her wrists with its gauntleted hands. It was damn strong and dark aura around it weakened her.

The two bane thralls by the door rushed out, blades swinging. The wounded one was in the lead.